How AI will revolutionize trade
Published 08 August 2023
Artificial intelligence (AI) is changing the international trade conversation. Many countries see AI as a boon for improving productivity, while others feel threatened by potential data breaches and cuts to the workforce. Jason Grant Allen, director of Singapore Management University’s Center for AI and Data Governance, explains the impact AI can have on trade.
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Data access is crucial for AI development, whether based on symbolic logic or for neural network architectures. Good data is necessary to train AI, and “to get better data…more data is good,” Allen said. In recent years, data control has been restricted to the countries of origin. This data localization—which is most stringent in China—can limit AI’s role in trade.
He also discussed the purported impact of AI on labor markets and cautioned against doomsday predictions for labor forces. Journalism, law, and blue-collar manufacturing jobs are “on the chopping block” as AI develops, but the introduction of AI isn’t necessarily fatal for these industries. “We have to think carefully about the distribution of benefits and burdens,” Allen said. “So, we’ve got this potential productivity windfall from AI, how do we distribute that between capital and labor and governments?”
About the NPF International Trade Fellowship 2023
The National Press Foundation holds an annual International Trade Fellowship workshop for journalists sponsored by the Hinrich Foundation. This year, we welcomed 24 Asia-based journalists to the fellowship at the Hinrich Foundation offices in Singapore. The sessions, held in July, focused on US-China geopolitics, AI’s impact on trade, global shifts in supply chains, data visuals, and more.
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