Why developing nations could pioneer AI’s “fourth path” beyond profit and control

Cornelia C. Walther argues that countries in the Global South have an opportunity to pioneer a “fourth path” for AI development that prioritizes human flourishing over pure market dominance, state control, or regulatory frameworks. This prosocial AI approach could allow nations like Morocco and Malaysia to leapfrog into context-specific AI systems that serve their own development priorities while offering models for other developing countries.

The big picture: While the US pursues business-first AI, China advances state-controlled models, and the EU focuses on regulation, a fourth path rooted in prosocial AI principles is emerging that refuses to choose between innovation and social responsibility.

What you should know: We’re navigating a “hybrid tipping zone” where four critical forces collide simultaneously across different levels of society.

• At the individual level, “agency decay” erodes our capacity for autonomous decision-making as algorithms increasingly predict and decide for us.
• Community-level AI mainstreaming transforms social bonds through algorithmic mediation of social interactions.
• The macro level witnesses an escalating race for AI supremacy and artificial general intelligence, with nations investing hundreds of billions.
• At the global level, climate concerns intensify as data centers feeding AI systems create electricity blackouts and water shortages from Mexico to Malaysia.

The Four Ts framework: Prosocial AI systems should be tailored, trained, tested, and targeted to serve human flourishing at every level.

• Tailored means recognizing that context matters—an AI system for healthcare in São Paulo needs different guardrails than one for Casablanca.
• Trained means being intentional about data sources and encoded values, using diverse, representative datasets that perform better across populations.
• Tested requires rigorous evaluation across individual, community, societal, and planetary impact dimensions.
• Targeted means being clear about purpose, aiming to be pro-people, pro-planet, pro-profit, and pro-potential.

Why double literacy matters: As the “last analogue generation,” we have both the opportunity and obligation to shape AI’s future before it ossifies into patterns serving narrow interests.

• Human literacy means understanding ourselves holistically across aspirations, emotions, thoughts, and sensations.
• Algorithmic literacy means understanding how algorithms influence our thinking patterns, emotional responses, and social interactions.
• Education systems need fundamental revamping to teach both self-awareness and technological competence from kindergarten through retirement.

Morocco’s example: The country’s New Development Model emphasizes human capital development, sustainable growth, and social inclusion, creating fertile ground for prosocial AI approaches.

• A recent AI regulation conference in Rabat organized by MoroccoAI and Meta brought together private sector innovators, public sector policymakers, academic researchers, and civil society thinkers.
• Morocco could develop AI systems tailored for its agricultural sector that preserve traditional farming knowledge while augmenting it with climate data.
• Healthcare AI could be trained on diverse Moroccan populations and targeted to improve maternal health outcomes in rural areas.

The economic opportunity: The African Development Bank’s research suggests that context-appropriate AI could add $1.5 trillion to Africa’s GDP by 2030, while also asserting nations’ right to shape their own technological futures.

What you can do: The 4A Framework offers a practical roadmap for building hybrid awareness at every level.

• Awareness: Regularly reconnect with your deeper purpose and values to ensure AI tools serve your aspirations.
• Appreciation: Seek community dialogues about technology’s impact on emotional lives and relationships.
• Acknowledgment: Demand that schools teach both human and algorithmic literacy from primary education onward.
• Accountability: Stay viscerally connected to planetary reality and reduce technology’s space in your life.

What they’re saying: “The question isn’t whether AI will reshape our world — it’s whether we’ll shape AI to serve human flourishing and planetary health, or delegate even that decision to our chatbots,” Walther writes.