Can GenAI Deliver Positive Impact? It Depends.

Impact investors, tech developers, and entrepreneurs across sectors often point to the enormous potential of generative artificial intelligence (genAI) to bring about positive change, creating new solutions to serve communities in pursuit of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Evidence suggests that genAI can be an important tool to enhance healthcare, improve agricultural practices, and expand access to education, particularly for underserved communities and people with disabilities. However, genAI is also a key element of dual use technologies, which can have devastating consequences for human rights and society. Every opportunity comes with risks, and it is critical that impact investors and the companies in which they invest understand the full range of social and human rights impacts of genAI—both positive and negative—in order to harness this technological innovation for the good of all. Given that impact investors are driven to maximize positive outcomes alongside financial returns, with the right mix of strategies and tools, they are well poised to take action to minimize harmful outcomes associated with the development and use of genAI.

This panel will bring together diverse perspectives for a frank conversation and interactive Q&A about genAI’s social benefits and material risks—reputational, regulatory, legal, and financial— and tools for investors and investees to maximize positive impacts while mitigating these risks. The discussion will explore the following key questions:

1) What are some examples of the power and potential of genAI to transform lives and livelihoods for the better?
2) What are key social and human rights risks associated with genAI, and how can they translate into material risks for companies and investors? What costs are we, as a society, willing to accept?
3) What lessons can the impact investment community draw from case studies of adverse social and material impacts?
4) What strategies and tools exist—and what more is needed—to help investors and investees identify and address harmful impacts associated with genAI?