Submit a Manuscript to the Journal
Development in Practice
For a Special Issue on
Artificial Intelligence and Development Practice in the Global South
Manuscript deadline
Special Issue Editor(s)
Dr Ubaid Mushtaq,
SRM University AP, Andhra Pradesh, India
[email protected]
Professor Joseph Assan,
Brandeis University, MA, USA
[email protected]
Artificial Intelligence and Development Practice in the Global South
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is increasingly being used as part of development practice and its impacts on the field are complex and rapidly evolving. AI is seen by many as a tool allowing faster turnaround times, easier collation and analysis of data, enhanced research outputs, and assistance with languages, among other more extensive uses, such as engagement with clients in Q&A or chatbot settings.
However, there are several dangers associated with overreliance on AI, which have the capacity to seriously and adversely affect global development practice. These include, but are not limited to:
- errors introduced by AI bots (in both research and practice)
- labour conditions and job opportunities that will be impacted by the advancement of AI
- inequities in access to AI tools
- bias of AI towards those with access to resources, including electricity, smart phones, other devices
- the impact of fees charged by AI services. Will this increase or decrease inequalities, including gender inequality?
- ethical challenges in using AI in proposal writing
- the effects of AI on job security
- the environmental impacts of AI in terms of energy and water consumption, mining and e-waste
- the ethical and humanitarian impacts of requiring aid recipients and respondents to engage with AI interfaces rather than human practitioners
- bias, racism, and prejudice in AI-generated responses
- using global AI tools to address localised issues
- issues in regulating AI and AI use
- emerging uses of AI tools in social protection and welfare targeting, where automated targeting and digital IDs raise concerns of exclusion
- the growing influence of AI in agriculture and food systems, where advisory tools and market forecasts affect smallholder livelihoods
Other points of interest include:
- the willingness of countries and small island states to host data centres; questions of land, resources, energy transition, utility bills for local vulnerable groups, etc.
- AI and evaluative practice – authenticity and data vs human-centred development
- AI and activism. The speed with which AI can source and analyse material that’s publicly available but very hard to find can put tools into activists’ hands to use to hold international development industry institutions to account
- the implications of rapid changes in AI translation for development practice, specifically language justice
Development in Practice seeks a combination of original research articles, viewpoints, and practice notes that explore the following broad categories.
- AI and inequality
- The (mis)use of AI in development practice
- AI and development research
- AI and exploitation
- AI ethics and safeguarding policies across its different applications.
Submission Instructions
Abstract submissions
Please submit your abstract and accompanying material directly to the guest editors (in copy: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]) by the deadline.
Abstracts should be no more than 150 words long. If you are submitting a research article, please submit an additional description (also up to 150 words) of your methodology. Please also include author details, as well as the country/region of the author(s).
Full article submissions
Submissions should adhere to the Development in Practice Aims and Scope, particularly the requirements to be focused on the Global South and not to overlook issues of gender or other social factors. Submissions should focus on development practice or, the real-world outcomes of AI use, as opposed to the technical aspects of AI. In other words, we are concerned with how AI affects people's lives in the Global South.
All submissions must follow the guidelines in our Instructions to Authors. Research articles should be no longer than 6000 words. Viewpoints and practice notes should be no longer than 3000 words.
The issue will preference articles that contain original, field-based research. However, as an exception to the journal’s usual requirements for original research-based articles, the special issue editors may also consider submissions that review the existing literature on AI and establish directions for much-needed future research.
AI Use
If you have used AI to compose your paper, it must be disclosed. We request that you also disclose how you have used it, e.g. whether for assistance with language or in more analytical capacity, e.g. in developing the methodology or grouping data. Where AI has been used in a more analytical capacity, a self-reflexive position should be adopted; in other words, we request that you consider the implications of your own use of AI within the research you are conducting. You may wish to consider using the GAIDeT Declaration Generator to generate your disclosure.
Please direct enquiries to the guest editors or the Development in Practice editorial team on [email protected].