TechPlus+ — Technology and Development Redux

Regulating Digital Platforms – I

1 November 20234 December 2023

Artificial Intelligence

By all accounts, the regulatory tide, constantly receding for so many years, is finally returning to the digital realm’s now extensive and arid shores . Indeed, digital platforms are now under the policy microscope, especially the well-known global giants whose Read more

AI Disinformation – II

15 October 202322 November 2023

Artificial Intelligence, Governance, Human Development, ICTD

AI’s astounding evolution in the last decade has been nothing less than spectacular, pace doomers. It has undoubtedly exceeded most expectations, bringing numerous benefits and generating new challenges and risks. The latter is crucial to understand as AI has a Read more

AI Disinformation – I

1 October 202322 November 2023

Artificial Intelligence, Governance, Human Development, ICTD

The idea of a technological singularity has been around for over 60 years. While initially confined to closed circles of experts, it has been gaining a lot of ground in the race to the future, which, according to its core Read more

Organized Disinformation II

30 September 202324 October 2023

Bubble inhabitants live in a world surrounded by an invisible yet effective firewall that protects them from allegedly vicious external sources, disinformation included. In such a paradise, harm is almost always pushed back if it attempts to cross it. And Read more

Organized Disinformation I

15 September 202322 October 2023

Governance, Human Development, ICTD

I still remember the phone number of the line my parents somehow managed to get installed in their first-owned house, a three-story dwelling my father, a civil engineer, helped design and build for a family of seven. It had six Read more

Disinformation Misinformation

10 August 202312 September 2023

Artificial Intelligence, Governance, Human Development

The rainy season had already begun but, as usual, did not provide any relief from that sweltering heat that never abandoned the small rural town. It was a regular Thursday morning, and Cesar planned to head back to the farm Read more

Data Analysis with ChatGPT

15 July 202324 July 2023

Artificial Intelligence, Human Development, Open Data

A few days ago, OpenAI launched its Code Interpreter, capable of handling Python programming chores. The interpreter can read files uploaded by users, perform tasks described in the input prompts and, if requested, allow downloads of outputs produced. One can Read more

Are LLMs Fully Multilingual?

1 July 202317 July 2023

Artificial Intelligence, Economics, Human Development

When I first started to play with ChatGPT in December of last year, I was pleasantly surprised to discover it could handle multiple languages. Needless to say, the LLM can handle translation from and into multiple languages. But it can Read more

More on AI Programming

15 June 20231 July 2023

Artificial Intelligence, Economics, Governance, ICTD

In the coldhearted realm of disinformation, deepfakes seem to reign supreme, bullying all others around along the way. The fact that they have multiple personalities makes them even more insidious. Voice, text, images and video content are some of the Read more

AI and Open Source – II

1 June 20234 September 2023

Artificial Intelligence, Economics, FOSS, Governance

Linux Freedom I first heard about Linux a couple of months after returning from the 1992 UN’s Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. I was working part-time as a Research Associate in one of the social research centers of my Read more

AI and Open Source – I

20 May 20234 September 2023

Artificial Intelligence, Economics, FOSS, Governance

By all accounts, the ChatGPT “revolution” has triggered a well-deserved resurgence of free software or Open Source free/Open Source software (FOSS) that, some argue, will allegedly challenge the dominance of Big Tech over LLMs. While I disagree with such a Read more

ChatGPT Productivity and Hallucinations Mix

11 May 202318 May 2023

Artificial Intelligence, Economics, Human Development

Undoubtedly, ChatGPT has taken the world by storm. Few will dare deny such a non-violent takeover. And, as expected, the now familiar digital innovation hype factory is holding yet another massive and seemingly endless ball, including reluctant doomsayers. OpenAI’s March Read more

Internet Metaphors in Practice – II

1 May 202318 May 2023

FOSS, Human Development, ICTD

A couple of years later, I installed our first Wi-Fi router, allowing us to connect our laptops to the network from almost any point in the house. But wireless connection speeds were limited to 11 Mbps while the good old Read more

Internet Metaphors in Practice – I

20 April 202318 May 2023

FOSS, Human Development, ICTD

The first time I ever bought something over the Internet was in 1994. And it was not from Amazon, but from a now long-gone company called CDNow. As its name suggests, its core business was selling CDs online. Interestingly, one Read more

Programming – Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow (maybe) – II

10 April 202318 May 2023

Artificial Intelligence, FOSS, Innovation

Today Expert systems, an integral part of AI from the onset, are one of the best examples of rules-based programming. The core idea is to have a computer system that can provide the same depth of knowledge as top-notch human Read more

Programming – Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow (maybe) – I

1 April 202321 May 2023

Artificial Intelligence, FOSS, Innovation

Yesterday I accidentally learned how to master computer programming. I was finishing high school and faced the daunting decision of choosing a study field. As my father was an engineer, I leaned toward the same area. But my passion for Read more

The Dynamics of Global Development, South and North

20 March 202318 May 2023

Economics, Human Development, Inequality

The Development of Development In its beginnings, unmovable numeric rankings permeated the always slippery and bumpy development racetrack. Stuck in first place were a selected group of countries labeled as developed, even though many were still rebuilding their economies after Read more

The Real Structures Sustaining the Cyberspace Imaginary – II

10 March 202318 May 2023

Artificial Intelligence, Climate Change, Economics, Governance, ICTD

History Matters Following the historical evolution of the Internet and Cyberspace sheds light on the origins of the “superhighway” and “virtual” metaphors, depicted in the first part of this post. Useful summaries from a pure infrastructural perspective are available from Read more

The Real Structures Sustaining the Cyberspace Imaginary – I

1 March 202318 May 2023

Artificial Intelligence, Climate Change, Economics, Governance, ICTD

Recreating the Imaginary If I were to ask another human being (not ChatGPT) for directions on how to get to Cyberspace, most would probably think I am joking. Others might consider me an imbecile or conclude I must be flying Read more

AI’s Seemingly Elusive Infrastructure – II

20 February 202318 May 2023

Artificial Intelligence, Climate Change, Economics, Human Development, ICTD

Undoubtedly, the infrastructural requirements used to produce the 2020 175 billion GPT-3 model are hefty by most standards. But, of course, that just means that competitors now striving to generate their own creatures on the same genre must have access Read more

AI’s Seemingly Elusive Infrastructure – I

10 February 202318 May 2023

Artificial Intelligence, Climate Change, Economics, ICTD

ChatGTP’s sudden and arguably premature success has yet again exposed the usually overlooked link between so-called “virtual” digital technologies and very tangible infrastructure. Indeed, early adopters of the latest incarnation of GTP-3-based bots directly experienced repeated network and login failures. Read more

ChatGPT’s New Version

31 January 20234 February 2023

Artificial Intelligence, e-governance, Economics, Innovation

Yesterday, OpenAI released a new iteration of ChatGPT, version 3.5. To quickly check, I decided to ask some of the same questions I did back in December. The table below compares the results. ChatGPT November 2022 v3.0 January 30 2023, Read more

Best Films – 2022

1 January 202314 January 2023

I read somewhere that 2022 was an excellent year for filmmaking. After all, the pandemic has become endemic (learn to live with it, no matter what). And previous virus constraints have now evaporated. Back to 2019, so to speak. Almost. Read more

Chatting with ChatGPT

15 December 20222 February 2023

Artificial Intelligence, Economics, Governance, Human Development

OpenAI’s new shiny chatbot, with the not-so-brilliant name of ChatGPT, has taken the world by storm, surprising most, company staff included. Evidence of the latter stems from the fact that whenever one tries to access the platform, a message announcing Read more

How Green is AI?

1 December 202215 January 2023

Artificial Intelligence, Climate Change, Governance, Human Development, ICTD

Playing Games My father taught me how to play chess when I was nine years old or thereabouts. He played his fair share of games while he was studying engineering. He told me that a few of his classmates quit Read more

ICTs and Emissions – V

19 November 202213 December 2022

Climate Change, Economics, Governance, Human Development, ICTD

Walking Around the Main Gallery Unlike its basement, the abode’s main gallery is noisy, crowded and chaotic, offering a maze-like layout we need to navigate safely. Indeed, one can easily get lost, and while checking in is pretty simple, finding Read more

Digital Technologies and Sustainable Development: The Missing Link

12 November 202215 September 2023

Climate Change, Economics, Governance, Human Development, ICTD

Context Nowadays, digital technologies occupy most of the interstices of society. While the global pandemic exposed glaring gaps, especially in developing countries, avoiding their mantra seems torturous. Undoubtedly, their rapid diffusion in the last 30 years is historical (Comin & Read more

ICTs and Emissions – IV

5 November 20229 November 2022

Climate Change, Economics, Governance, Human Development, ICTD

Environmental Footprints As previously mentioned, data centers (DCs) depend not only on energy consumption but also require plenty of water for survival, just like humans. We thus have increasing competition for a critical resource, especially when droughts and wildfires are Read more

ICTs and Emissions – III

27 October 20229 November 2022

Climate Change, Economics, Governance, Human Development

The Abode is a Humongous Shopping Mall As some pundits have observed, data centers (DCs) are the backbone of the digital realm – hiding in plain sight, I would add. However, they do not live alone in their noisy, albeit Read more

ICTs and Emissions – II

20 October 202222 October 2022

Climate Change, Economics, Governance, Human Development, ICTD

Cyberspace Mansions In 2009, amid the Global Financial Crisis, the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) announced plans to create a 1.2 billion dollar data center (DC) in Utah. Indeed, surveillance once again proved it is immune to economic disasters, regardless Read more

ICTs and Emissions – I

1 October 202212 October 2022

Climate Change, Economics, Governance, Human Development, ICTD

Digital technologies’ social ubiquitousness is indisputable. Indeed, escaping their mantra seems unreal, almost dystopic, regardless of location or connectivity. The TINA (there is no alternative) principle appears to be entirely at work here. It is thereby paradoxical new ICTs are Read more

RegTech is Here!

20 September 20221 October 2022

Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain, Economics, Governance

Modern FinTech saw the light of day with the launching of ATM machines in the late 60s. A few years later, NASDAQ was born, credit cards exploded and banks started to deploy mainframes and minicomputer computers to support their operations. Read more

Economic Growth and Sustainable Development

10 September 202226 September 2022

Climate Change, Economics, Human Development, ICTD

In a previous entry, I explored the connections between digital technologies, economic growth and the environment, using the concept of Sustainable Development (SD) as analytical reference. The figure below depicts yet another way to see the three development outcomes that Read more

More Carbon Inequality

1 September 202211 September 2022

Climate Change, Human Development, Inequality

IPCC reports usually include an annex containing a climate glossary where key terms are succinctly defined. The latest report is no exception, providing an extensive dictionary consuming over 30 pages of text – yet less than 1% of the report’s Read more

More Light on Financial Inclusion

20 August 202226 September 2022

Blockchain, Economics, Human Development, ICTD, Innovation

In a couple of recent posts, I briefly traced the history of financial inclusion and its links to the emergence and diffusion of digital technologies. A recently published book by Nick Bernards tackles the same issue more comprehensively while taking Read more

Carbon Inequality

10 August 202226 September 2022

Climate Change, Governance, Human Development, Inequality

My previous post highlighted a gap between the Glasgow CoP26 mitigation targets and GHG emissions data. The best example here is the selection of methane as a priority while the big elephant in the room, CO2, mentioned in passing, escaped Read more

Net-zero Emissions and Developing Countries – II

1 August 202219 August 2022

Climate Change, Governance, Human Development, Inequality

As discussed in the previous post, low-income and most low-middle-income countries play almost no role in methane emissions. Therefore, embarking on related targets and projects will not make a dent on a global scale. Instead, it might end up increasing Read more

Net-zero Emissions and Developing Countries – I

20 July 202214 August 2022

Climate Change, Governance, Human Development, Inequality

If Climate Change rings to many of us as an almost insurmountable global challenge, then net-zero has recently emerged as its apparent universal solution. The coin has finally been imprinted with two clearly defined sides, in constant and inseparable opposition. Read more

Towards a Public Internet?

10 July 202230 July 2022

Governance, Human Development, ICTD

Memory insists on telling me every so often that the first time I ever used the Internet was at the tail end of the 1980s. A couple of years earlier, the college where I was struggling to finish my Ph.D. Read more

Digital Technologies and Sustainable Development

1 July 202217 July 2022

Climate Change, Economics, Governance, Human Development, ICTD, Innovation

1. Overall context Much water has already gone under the bridge on this topic. Yet the flow shows no signs of coming to a halt soon. In the early days of the so-called “Internet revolution,” only a few were connecting Read more

Financial Inclusion and Democratizing Finance – III

20 June 20224 July 2022

Blockchain, Economics, Human Development, ICTD

Show me the money The impact of initiatives such as Grameen Bank (Village phone included) and M-Pesa is still under discussion. From a poverty reduction perspective, the effect has been much more limited. Many countries in the Global South have Read more

Financial Inclusion and Democratizing Finance – II

10 June 202219 June 2022

Blockchain, Economics, Human Development, ICTD, Innovation

Where are the banks? It seems paradoxical that the mainstream history of micro-finance/financial inclusion does not consider banks. After all, banks are supposed to “bank the unbanked.” So banks are not only missing from such a narrative. They are also Read more

Financial Inclusion and Democratizing Finance – I

30 May 202219 July 2022

Blockchain, Economics, Human Development, ICTD, Social Innovation

From Noise to Signal A couple of weeks ago, El Salvador’s CryptoPopulist President shared on social media news about an international “Bitcoin” meeting his country was hosting starting May 16. He also listed the names of the 44 entities participating Read more

Open Data and Big Pharma

15 May 20221 June 2022

Economics, Innovation, Open Data

In 1980, the U.S. Congress passed the Bayh-Dole Act that modified patent and trademark law by allowing universities and small businesses to own inventions created under the funding of the Federal Government. Its core idea was to expedite the commercialization Read more

The Environment and “Socialist” States

1 May 202211 May 2022

Climate Change, Economics, Governance, Human Development, Inequality

Thirty-six years after it first broke the news for the wrong reasons, Chernobyl is back in the headlines thanks to the horrible and absurd Russian invasion. Sixteen months before the well-known Soviet nuclear meltdown of 1986, a plant located in Read more

ICTs and Development Theories – II

15 April 202227 April 2022

Economics, Governance, Human Development, ICTD

Linking ICTs to development External researchers and experts poking for the first time into ICTD might assume that the field has, 30 years after its birth, a cohesive theory on how ICTs impact development. Unfortunately, that is not the case. Read more

ICTs and Development Theories – I

1 April 202227 April 2022

Economics, Governance, Human Development, ICTD

ICTD overview The field of ICTD first saw the light over 30 years ago1 Selected references are provided at the end of the 2nd part of this post. Its overall scope is ambitious as it covers several sectors and thematic Read more

More Bitcoin Inequality

15 March 20225 April 2022

Blockchain, Inequality, Innovation

While still prone to seemingly unpredictable dynamics, Bitcoin’s price seems to have found a new center of gravity in the last year. Since February 2021, the Cryptocurrency has oscillated around 4ok per unit, give or take. It peaked at 67.5k Read more

State Capacity and Digital Technologies – I

1 March 202222 March 2022

Economics, Governance, Human Development

To the Moon and Back It was my elder sister’s 25th birthday when Apollo 11 landed on the moon. We watched the unprecedented event on B&W TV – our grandma openly expressing total skepticism. We then went out for a Read more

Hacking Public Policy Making with AI

15 February 20221 March 2022

Artificial Intelligence, Crowdsourcing, e-governance, Human Development

Modern Evidence-based Policy Making (EBPC) has been around for 25 years, imported into the mainstream from the health sector and its success with randomized controlled trials. The latter has now spread to many other sectors and research areas. A few Read more

Blockchain Adoption in the Public Sector – II

30 January 20222 February 2022

Blockchain, Governance, ICTD, Innovation

Regulatory frameworks are usually perceived as counter-productive and even nefarious by innovators, pundits and followers. Together they will go out of their way to stop them, arguing that their impact on innovation is lethal, as discussed in a previous post. Read more

Blockchain Adoption in the Public Sector – I

15 January 202231 January 2022

Blockchain, e-governance, Governance, Innovation

Over ten years after its creation, the hype on Blockchain Technology (BCT) continues to dominate the scene compared to actual implementation. However, that does not necessarily imply it has remained immune to change. At the very onset, Cryptocurrencies, led by Read more

Best Films – 2021

31 December 202114 January 2022

The pandemic has been a blessing in disguise, to a point. Many films continued to be available online at the start of the year, but as vaccines increased and panic subsided, theaters started to reopen, albeit not at lightning speed. Read more

Global Wealth Distribution

15 December 20214 January 2022

Climate Change, Economics, Human Development

GDP (Gross Domestic Product), the statistic most frequently used to measure wealth creation in terms of goods and services, has been the subject of critical review for the last 25 years. Green National Accounting (GNA) and the ensuing Green National Read more

A Fuzzy Das Kapital Word Cloud

1 December 202117 December 2021

Economics, Human Development

A few months ago, the top U.S. General was summoned by a Congressional Committee to explain why “Critical Race Theory” was being taught in the military. The General’s response built on the idea that the better one knows the enemy, Read more

Digital Government and Social Leaders

15 November 20213 December 2021

e-governance, Gender, Governance, Human Development, ICTD

As part of an online course on Digital Government for Social Leaders, I was asked to develop a script for a five-minute animation where an Avatar will introduce the topic and entice the leaders to embrace it as part of Read more

AI National Policies – III

1 November 202115 December 2022

Artificial Intelligence, Governance, Human Development, ICTD

Policy Evolution Comparatively speaking, AI national policies and strategies have evolved much slower than other digital strategies such as ICT, Digital Government, and Open Data. That might seem paradoxical given the systemic benefits and risks of the revived and now Read more

AI National Policies – II

15 October 202115 December 2022

Artificial Intelligence, Governance, Human Development, ICTD

As mentioned in the previous post, policymakers should skip over the dominant technology-centered AI perspective and instead position AI as a multi-dimensional structure cutting across all sectors. Indeed, national AI policy effectiveness depends to a large extent on the AI Read more

AI National Policies – I

1 October 202115 December 2022

Artificial Intelligence, Governance, Human Development, ICTD

National policy development on new digital technologies has become a staple since the emergence of the Internet in the early 1990s. It has certainly not been limited to most advanced countries. Nations in the Global South have also climbed the Read more

Contesting Innovation

15 September 202124 January 2022

Human Development, Innovation, Social Innovation

Innovation is always good. Innovation regulation is always wrong. These are the two innovation axioms we repeatedly hear in unison from mainstream media, innovators and innovative companies, big and small. Indeed, the two are connected. They are, in fact, two Read more