Artificial intelligence risks increasing inequality between developed and developing countries, a United Nations report has warned. The report, titled "The Next Great Divergence" and released by the United Nations Development Programme's Asia and Pacific regional bureau on Tuesday, calls for urgent, coordinated policy action to manage the impact of the technology. "We think that AI is heralding a new era of rising inequality between countries, following years of convergence in the last 50 years," Philip Schellekens, the bureau's chief economist, told a briefing in Geneva, according to the Reuters news agency. The report argues that AI, like the Industrial Revolution before it, has the potential to unlock unprecedented opportunities or deepen existing divides, across a global landscape marked by vast gaps in wealth, skills, and digital access. Even wealthier countries would suffer if poorer states were left behind by the AI revolution, said Schellekens. "If inequality continues to rise, the spillover effects of that in terms of the security agenda, in terms of undocumented forms of migration, will also become more daunting," he worries.

Pope Francis has urged Catholics to pray that artificial intelligence (AI) does not rebel against humankind. The pontiff, who made the appeal in his prayer intention for November, warned against rising inequality that could result from advanced robotics, and instead called for AI to work for everyone. "Artificial intelligence is at the heart of the epochal change we are experiencing," Francis said. "Robotics can make a better world possible if it is joined to the common good. "Indeed, if technological progress increases inequalities, it is not true progress.

Its proposed solutions, while excellent, are partial and create the impression that the underlying purpose of this report was to make academia's voice heard in Whitehall and secure new long-term funding. No one doubts the stature of the UK's universities and research institutes, or the world-leading AI and robotics expertise within them, but by appearing to regard AI solely as an academic discipline, the report misses nearly all of the most important challenges facing the UK. As noted above, this report is interesting because it pushes the voices of workers to the front of the debate on the impact of AI. Too often we get drawn into the excitement around the potential of automation, the opportunities that could be gained, without thinking about the people that could be left behind as a result. Let's hope that this new commission can apply real pressure to the government to come up with an effective strategy and some new practical policies around addressing the forthcoming changes – working with citizens, employees and trade unions, rather than against them.