The barista didn’t recognize me this morning. Maybe it was the new glasses, maybe it was the weariness after another late night wrestling with AI tools that promised to automate my job but instead added three more steps. Or maybe, as Anthropic suggests, the future is arriving faster for some of us than others, and I’m already falling behind.
The AI startup Anthropic (an AI Company), developers of the Claude chatbot, recently issued a warning: the productivity gains promised by AI may primarily benefit wealthier nations. This could widen the already significant economic inequality between high and low-income countries, as the resources needed to adopt and implement AI become increasingly expensive. It’s a bit like giving a faster car to someone who already has a head start.
How is Claude Being Used Around The World?
I saw a tourist in a remote village using a satellite phone to translate a menu. Turns out, this anecdote mirrors a larger trend. Anthropic’s own research indicates that richer countries are adopting AI technologies, such as Claude, at a far more rapid pace. A recent analysis of over one million conversations with Claude, across both free and enterprise versions, revealed a significant disparity in adoption rates. They found “no evidence yet that lower-income countries are catching up.”
Other data supports this. Microsoft, for example, released a report showing that AI adoption in the “global north” nearly doubled compared to the “global south” in the past year. Peter McCrory, Anthropic’s head of economics, even told the Financial Times that we risk “a divergence in living standards” that favors the already wealthy, if productivity gains materialize.
Will AI Widen the Gap Between Rich and Poor Countries?
A local factory just invested in robotic arms, but laid off half its workforce to pay for them. This illustrates the double-edged sword. Anthropic’s warning suggests that if AI-driven productivity gains are not distributed equitably, the gap between rich and poor nations could widen. It’s not just about access to the technology itself, but also about the infrastructure, expertise, and investment needed to leverage its potential.
The concern is less about the technology itself, and more about the existing structures that determine who benefits from it. If AI is a rising tide, some boats are definitely bigger than others.
Are AI Productivity Gains Real?
I spent a whole afternoon trying to get an AI to write a simple email, and after six prompts, I ended up rewriting the whole thing myself. It’s a common story. The reality is, the promise of increased output has yet to fully materialize for many early adopters. A study from MIT found that a staggering 95% of businesses that invested in generative AI haven’t seen a positive return on investment.
Upwork found that about half of employees don’t understand how to achieve the productivity gains their employers expect from AI. Even more concerning, over three-quarters reported that AI tools have decreased their productivity and increased their workload. All that glitters is not gold.
How Much Does Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei Make?
The narrative of AI as a universal benefit rings a little hollow when placed against the backdrop of existing economic realities. American workers have almost doubled their productivity in the last half-century, partly because of technology. But wages haven’t kept pace, while corporate profits and executive pay have soared.
It’s worth noting that Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has an estimated net worth of $3.7 billion (€3.4 billion).
Perhaps the real question isn’t whether AI will increase productivity, but who will profit? As AI progresses, will it truly level the playing field, or simply reinforce existing inequalities on a global scale?