Artificial intelligence threatens to increase inequality
STEVEN SEAMAN
A quarter of the world's population, 2.200 billion people, still lack internet access, according to data from the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). This digital divide risks widening with the rise of Artificial Intelligence.
In 2025, 85% of urban residents used the network, but almost half of the rural population (58%) still did not.
The digital divide also exhibits a marked gender bias: it affects 52% of women compared to 42% of men. These inequalities are exacerbated by geographical, socioeconomic, and educational factors, generating new forms of social exclusion in an increasingly digitized economy.
In your report “The next great divergence”The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) warns that inadequate management of AI threatens to widen economic, skills, and governance gaps between countries, reversing decades of progress in reducing inequalities.
AI could increase inequality between countries by widening these gaps, since the starting point is already hugely unequal.
The Chinese telecommunications company Huawei has made digital inclusion one of its top priorities. In recent years, it has provided digital connectivity to nearly 170 million people in more than 80 countries, explains Joyce Liu, the company's Director of Market Operations and an expert in digital inclusion.
Since 2019, the Chinese technology company has launched programs to combat the digital divide under the slogan "Tech4All" (Technology for all) that mainly cover four major areas: education, environment, health and development.
"In education, we have a program with UNESCO through which we build equipment and provide connectivity to rural schools, in addition to training and providing digital skills to teachers," explains Liu.
This program, launched in 2020 and called "Open Schools with Technology for All", has been implemented in countries such as Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Brazil or Thailand, where 44 "smart schools" have been built that have benefited "more than 20.000 teachers and students in remote areas".
Digital trucks
In addition, they have launched the "Skills on Wheels" project in 27 countries - many of them African, but also European countries like France or Norway or Latin American countries like Peru.
The program consists of the use of "digital trucks", which can be easily moved, in which technical experts provide digital training in rural areas with little connection and knowledge, especially to children and the elderly.
This project complements the "Schools on Wheels" program, launched in 2019, which transforms used transport containers and buses into "mobile classrooms equipped with smart screens and computers that can reach remote areas."
These are initiatives aimed at a period of two or three years in which Huawei also collaborates with other local and global partners, such as the Vodafone Foundation, some contributing funds or their staff in different countries.
"We cannot say how much money Huawei invests in these programs since there are several collaborators; in the UNESCO program we are the sole donor, but in other projects we have several partners who may not contribute money, but their employees do," Liu points out.
Digital solutions for biodiversity
The digital inclusion expert states that in education they have reached 1.790 schools with "more than 700.000 people benefiting", while in the environment their digital solutions have improved the conservation of biodiversity and the sustainable use and management of natural resources in 95 protected areas around the world.
"In 2020, Huawei and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) launched the global alliance Tech4Nature (Technology for Nature) to expand the impact of nature conservation through technological innovation," he explains, adding that projects have been implemented in countries such as China, Brazil, Mexico, Spain, Kenya, and Turkey.
Specifically, in the Soure Extractive Marine Reserve in the Brazilian Amazon, low-cost environmental sensors have been installed to collect real-time data on water temperature, salinity, and other parameters, in order to monitor the impact of climate change on the local mangrove ecosystem.
In the Dzilam de Bravo State Reserve in Mexico, infrared cameras have been set up to monitor 7.000 hectares of protected land, which by the end of 2025 had identified 16 wild jaguars.
In the health sector, the projects include digital skills training for people with disabilities and accessibility improvement technologies, such as devices for people with visual or hearing problems "which are already used by 8 million users."
Liu warns that the digital divide "creates many differences and it is crucial to fight against it," especially after the introduction of Artificial Intelligence, which could "widen the divide even further."
"Just as roads, railways, and communication networks were the infrastructure of the industrial age, AI will become the infrastructure of the smart world," he emphasizes.
In this sense, he believes that to achieve inclusion in AI, it is necessary to "focus on the accessibility and ease of use of its technology."
"All parties must collaborate to bridge the infrastructure and skills gap, making AI an infrastructure as easily accessible as water and electricity."
Huawei's goal, it says, is "to build a sustainable and fully connected smart world where all people, including the most vulnerable and disabled, can enjoy digital technology."
