Hiwot Tesfaye disputes the notion of AI givers and takers, challenges innovation as an import, highlights untapped global potential, and charts a more inclusive course. 

Hiwot and Kimberly discuss the two camps myth of inclusivity; finding innovation everywhere; meaningful AI adoption and diffusion; limitations of imported AI; digital colonialism; low-resource languages and illiterate LLMs; an Icelandic success story; situating AI in time and place; employment over automation; capacity and skill building; skeptical delight and making the case for multi-lingual, multi-cultural AI. 

Hiwot Tesfaye is a Technical Advisor in Microsoft’s Office of Responsible AI and a Loomis Council Member at the Stimson Center where she helped launch the Global Perspectives: Responsible AI Fellowship. 

Related Resources

• #35 Navigating AI: Ethical Challenges and Opportunities a conversation with Hiwot Tesfaye

A transcript of this episode is here.