As debates around artificial intelligence dominate global summits and newsrooms alike, Dr. Yanis Ben Amor stands out for his expertise, but also for his unwavering commitment to making AI tools work where they are needed most—in the Global South.
Speaking to To Vima International Edition, the Executive Director at Columbia University‘s Center for Sustainable Development shares the contours of his far-reaching initiative that combines academic rigor with real-world applications in health, education, and beyond.
From Fear to Harnessing AI for the Global Good
“I’m an educator, a professor at Columbia, and my first reaction to large language models and AI was relatively negative actually,” Ben Amor confesses.
Like many academics, he initially feared AI tools would undermine students’ learning. “Luckily, I am not that old and that prehistoric mindset lasted about three weeks.”
That shift marked the beginning of what is now a global effort: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Work, an initiative led by Ben Amor that embeds AI literacy and tools into academic curricula across five key streams: health, education, ethics, macroeconomics, and digital inclusion.
“The initiative runs in every part of the world. We have partner universities and private sector partners in South America, of course North America, Europe, Sub-Saharan Africa, North Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia,” explains the executive director.
Creating a Roadmap for AI and Health Innovation
One of the most urgent applications of AI is in health. “A lot of private companies are developing amazing AI tools for health that are designed for the Global North,” says Ben Amor. “But there is probably a little bit of a fear: how are these tools going to transition to low- and middle-income countries?”
To answer that, his team—25 strong and drawn from around the globe—has launched a pilot in Rwanda. “We are bringing AI tools in one particular country,” he says. “We will then write a roadmap that will hopefully serve as a blueprint for these companies.”
Yet the project has recently found itself battling unexpected headwinds. “The problem we did not anticipate… were all the funding cuts in global health,” Ben Amor reveals, referring to the impact of the Trump administration’s recent about-face in the global health policy of the U.S.
“Some of the health professionals—doctors, nurses—that we were planning to work with are no longer there.” The funding has abruptly stopped and they have lost their jobs.
AI meets digital tools for doctors
Fighting the Digital Divide
Ben Amor is acutely aware that the biggest challenge may be systemic: “One of my concerns was, the students in the U.S. and the students in Europe, they’re going to be fine… What about the very talented students from North Africa, from the Middle East, from South Asia?”
That concern is personal—he is originally from Tunisia—, and it’s part of what led him to focus on connecting with local universities to help deliver AI-focused curricula relevant to the global south which can actually be deployed.
“There are three components: talent is one, infrastructure is another—so you have to have access to data centers, computing power, etc.—, and you have to have resources.”
Progress, however, is starting to be made. “I was just in Rwanda last week,” he noted, referring to the first AI Summit for Africa held in Kigali this April. There, a “$60 billion AI Fund for Africa was announced to invest in data centers, electrification, connectivity, and training hubs across the continent.”
Still, the stakes are high. The World Bank estimates that a $100 billion is needed to bridge the divide. Meanwhile, “the IMF at the World Economic Forum in Davos said that they predict that 40% of workers from low- and middle-income countries just will have no chance of being competitive on the global market because of this digital divide.”
And with the U.S. government essentially gutting foreign aid and withdrawing from key international bodies like the World Health Organization, the fate of major AI infrastructure projects, education and training programs in many developing countries remains uncertain—dependent on whether other actors are willing and able to step in and fill the void.
An image of a data center which supports AI.
Greece’s AI Opportunity—and the Risk of Inaction
Turning to Greece, Dr. Ben Amor struck a more cautious note. “I am not an expert in what is happening in Greece,” he clarified, “but I will say that I see that there is a dual polarization.”
That polarization, he explained, exists not only between countries that can afford to invest in AI infrastructure and those that cannot, but also within wealthier nations—between those who view AI as transformational and those who remain unconvinced.
Referring to a recent study presented at the 10th Delphi Forum, he says, “They asked the question about whether [Greek executives] believed that bringing AI into their company would increase productivity. Twenty-four percent said no.” Compiling all the data from the study, “the results suggests that 75% of respondents see little to no productivity gain from AI.”
“In that case,” he adds, “why would they invest in skilling their workers for artificial intelligence?”
He also raised a red flag about academia in Greece. “Is there actually a partnership with Greek academia to make sure that these AI skills are being taught? Because, otherwise, Greek academia is going to continue to turn out a workforce that is going to be outdated within five years of being in the workplace.”
View the interview with Dr. Ben Amor on To Vima International Edition’s youtube channel.
Balancing Optimism with Caution
Despite the challenges, Ben Amor remains optimistic about AI’s potential. “A French philosopher said that the world is split into two: the optimists and the pessimists. The optimists are the ones who invent the plane, and the pessimists are the ones who invent the parachute,” he says.
He counts himself among the optimists. “In the last two years only, we have found new antibiotics within hours that we didn’t know could possibly exist,” he added. “I predict that in the next five years there will be amazing treatment for cancer, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, new antibiotics, new antivirals.”
But his optimism is tempered by caution. “AI is also used for militarization… So that’s the pessimist side, where we have to make sure that whoever is developing these AI tools, that there is still some infrastructure in place to make sure that they cannot go too far.”
While Ben Amor sees artificial intelligence as a powerful tool for reducing global inequalities, its impact on the Global South may depend less on technological breakthroughs and infrastructure than on political will.
As the U.S. retreats from multilateralism and development aid—and other global powers grapple with trade wars and economic uncertainty—the mission to deliver ethical, locally adapted AI to less developed countries risks stalling as countries shift their focus from global development to matters closer to home.
Professor Yanis Ben Amor is the Executive Director of the Center for Sustainable Development at the Climate School at Columbia University.
Cheryl Novak is Deputy Chief Editor at To Vima International Edition and Research Associate at ELIAMEP
