I think you make a good point well (although I think the answer to why Malawi is poor is “all of the above and more”, and the question “why is Rwanda growing fast” is a more interesting one[1])
When it comes to the inability of A[G]I to magically transform Malawi’s economy I actually think it’s even broader than just specific things like the existing political settlement restricting exports: AI telling people how to increase crop yields simply isn’t going to make maize smallholding anything other than a poverty living. Demand for maize is finite so making it marginally more efficiently even if one assumes every Malawian smallholder perfectly optimizes their production using the latest frontier yield optimization models (which one definitely shouldn’t assume) makes little difference. AI isn’t going to make the world any more likely to manufacture in a poorly educated, poorly connected backwater; if anything the opposite. Malawians aren’t exactly inundated with funds to buy compute time to start exciting new international businesses either.
Bangladesh and Vietnam I don’t see as really comparable. They have some classic historic problems but they have factors pulling them into a global economy Malawi doesn’t and couldn’t have.
I think you make a good point well (although I think the answer to why Malawi is poor is “all of the above and more”, and the question “why is Rwanda growing fast” is a more interesting one[1])
When it comes to the inability of A[G]I to magically transform Malawi’s economy I actually think it’s even broader than just specific things like the existing political settlement restricting exports: AI telling people how to increase crop yields simply isn’t going to make maize smallholding anything other than a poverty living. Demand for maize is finite so making it marginally more efficiently even if one assumes every Malawian smallholder perfectly optimizes their production using the latest frontier yield optimization models (which one definitely shouldn’t assume) makes little difference. AI isn’t going to make the world any more likely to manufacture in a poorly educated, poorly connected backwater; if anything the opposite. Malawians aren’t exactly inundated with funds to buy compute time to start exciting new international businesses either.
Bangladesh and Vietnam I don’t see as really comparable. They have some classic historic problems but they have factors pulling them into a global economy Malawi doesn’t and couldn’t have.