The digital divide is much more nuanced than just either you're connected or you're not.
AI is taking over—an undeniable fact—but its impact on humans and society remains largely unclear. While discussions around AI often focus on innovation and impacts on productivity, a growing number of experts are calling attention to the vast number of people who risk being left behind as AI changes every facet of our daily lives.
Organizations like Human-I-T are tackling the pressing issue of ensuring that underserved communities have the tools and training needed to participate in a society entrenched in AI. Lo Terry, AI Governance lead with Human-I-T, highlights the nuances of the digital divide, the cultural impact of AI, and how the livelihood of most people hangs in the balance of AI adoption.
What’s at stake: "If we assume that technological adoption follows a natural bell curve, the right tail—those who embrace AI early—will see a massive return on investment. Meanwhile, the majority, roughly 68% in the middle or the left, risk being woefully left behind," Terry states.
Human-I-T is a social enterprise creating equitable access to opportunities through technology. They specialize in providing low-cost computers and internet access to individuals who have historically been underserved. Many of their customers are getting online for the first time, making them among the least likely to adopt AI tools—despite their growing ubiquity in daily life.
Digital divide: "The digital divide is much more nuanced than just either you're connected or you're not," Terry explains. "There’s also a sense of being under-connected while there’s a huge capability of connection, or being under-skilled while there’s a huge capability to take maximum advantage of the sorts of things available on the internet."
It’s not that an AI will replace your job, it’s that a person who knows how to use AI better than you will replace you doing your job.
AI Adoption and Resistance: Even among tech-savvy demographics, AI adoption is far from universal. "I can’t tell you how many people I meet in their 30s who don’t use AI," Terry notes. "Partially because they don’t like the idea of using it, and partially because they overestimate how complicated it is to get good results."
This hesitation, he predicts, could lead to a significant cultural backlash. "I am very much of the opinion that in the next decade we will have a very large anti-AI movement pop up." While fears around privacy, ethics, and job displacement fuel skepticism, another major factor is simply intimidation—many people feel that AI is too complex or inaccessible.
Job replacement: But ignoring AI could have dire consequences, especially in the workplace: "It’s not that an AI will replace your job, it’s that a person who knows how to use AI better than you will replace you doing your job," Terry says. In the next five years, he predicts a small subset of power users will master AI to the point where they can perform the work of three to five people, making them indispensable while leaving others behind.
Closing the Gap: Realizing we face an impending divide, Human-I-T is taking proactive steps to ensure that people who have only recently gained digital access are not immediately excluded from the next wave of AI’s development. "What we've seen, as has been the case for hundreds of years, is that these people will get left behind unless organizations like Human-I-T and hopefully our peers step in and make sure they don't," Terry shares. "By the end of this year, we’ll be offering free training for practical AI skills for people who otherwise would feel too intimidated to use it."
