This is one of the most important questions about AI and one that I've thought about. In countries like India, much of the economy is informal — heavily reliant on tacit knowledge that's not written down anywhere, processes never codified, "I know a guy who knows a guy" networks, and pervasive corruption. This underground economy is trapped in a vicious cycle: low wages + extreme illegibility → no incentive for private actors to build AI for their use cases → everything stays informal + low productivity. I don't know if governments and/or NGOs can help break this cycle, but if they can, its impact would easily exceed that of rural electrification. India has successfully built and deployed digital infrastructure for legibility in the past — Aadhaar and UPI — so there is hope. Two important and depressing readings on related points: Dispatches from India arjunramani.com/india-dispat… by @arjun_ramani3. There's a lot in there and I won't try to summarize it, but it helps explain why this project is not just a matter of building technology. "Many of the basic facts needed to operate in Indian society are not recorded anywhere, but rather sit inside the heads of various information brokers who live off the rents from keeping that information private." In other words, codification will be actively resisted by rent seekers who are adapted to the current system. AI could keep poor countries poor newsletter.deenamousa.com/p/… by @deenamousa. Past waves of technology and globalization benefited poor countries because they got to export the products and services created through their cheap labor. AI probably won't have this effect — it substitutes cheap labor even more cheaply. (Implication: this makes it even more important for them to find ways to use AI to improve their local economies.)