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For all its extraordinary promise to bolster productivity and innovation, has a dark side. For one, it poses existential-level threats (from non-alignment with human interests to triggering first use of WMD).

More immediately, AI is set to displace hundreds of millions of jobs, turbo-charge digital harms, scale-up cyber security threats, and accelerate copyright infringements. What’s more, an AI divide is growing between the Global North and South.

A few reflections here from Rob Muggah on what’s at stake in this quick talk for , The SecDev Group, Instituto Igarapé, and . It’s a bit heavy on the doom and gloom, but also explores the different conversion that’s underway about AI opportunity, including in Africa.

In English here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujInsGYKqrs

In Portuguese here: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0mqXsbbGbds

AI and the Global South - Robert Muggah | WIRED The threats posed by Artificial Intelligence (AI) dominated the global agenda in 2023 and will continue being a major concern in 2024. The co-founder OF the ...

As we navigate the shifting landscape of commercial intelligence, SecDev is at the forefront of integrating AI-driven OSAINT – open-source AI intelligence analysis, that holds promise to transform risk assessment and opportunity identification. The rapid evolution of large-scale language models and generative AI is poised to enhance the precision and speed of data amalgamation, elevating the capacities of analysts, and facilitating rapid, informed decision-making. Yet, we approach this transformative power with considered caution, recognizing the need for ethical and operational guardrails in this new era of intelligence synthesis. Join us as we stride into this exciting frontier, harnessing the power of AI to democratize intelligence and redefine how public information is collected, while establishing safeguards to ensure the benefits of OSAINT do not overshadow its potential challenges. Read the latest from SecDev’s https://www.cigionline.org/articles/ai-is-poised-to-revolutionize-intelligence-and-risk-analysis/

AI Is Poised to Revolutionize Intelligence and Risk Analysis Tasks previously deemed tedious and time-consuming by human analysts, such as pattern recognition in images, audio or video, can now be automated at a fraction of the cost.

One third of ’s critical mineral and wealth lies below the rainforest. These assets could help drive the global green transition, but also carry immense existential risks. One is the so-called “resource curse”. The other is how to unearth and refine them without razing forests and degrading biodiversity (ensuring locals benefit) and imperilling the global climate.

Consider that to achieve the climate goals in the 2015 , the world will need to quadruple—yes, quadruple—mineral production through 2040, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). Surging demand will especially affect Latin America, which has 40 percent of global copper reserves as well as a large share of the world’s cobalt and nickel.

Just three countries— , , and —control two-thirds of the global supply of . The pressure to mine rare earths will grow as well, especially as , the world’s largest producer, moves to restrict exports and as other countries work to lessen their strategic dependence on Beijing.

How Brazil manages a vast expansion of its mining industry and handles the attendant environmental, social, and other negative consequences could therefore shape the rules and red lines of an expanding global mining sector for years to come. Some reflections from SecDev’s Robert Muggah in Foreign Policy this week.

Will Brazil Destroy the Amazon to Save the Climate? Brazil’s mineral wealth could power the energy transition, but mining is a very dirty business.