{"podcast":{"title":"This Week in Global Development","slug":"this-week-in-global-development-6311778","podcast_index_feed_id":6311778,"rss_url":"https://www.spreaker.com/show/5837438/episodes/feed","website_url":"https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/this-week-in-global-development--5837438","image_url":"https://d3wo5wojvuv7l.cloudfront.net/t_rss_itunes_square_1400/images.spreaker.com/original/71e7688b8237c333a8d8a3205a7a0671.jpg","author":"Devex","episode_count":216,"summary":"Dive into the week's most critical global development news with the This Week in Global Development podcast. In each episode, hosts Adva Saldinger, David Ainsworth, and Rumbi Chakamba break down major headlines and invite leading experts for insightful analysis. Get up-to-date on news regarding foreign aid, humanitarian crises, the U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goals, finance, philanthropy, climate, food systems, global health, and stay informed on the latest trends and policy changes shaping global development. Episodes are published every Friday and can also be watched on YouTube. Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@devex Sign up to the Devex Newswire and our other newsletters: https://www.devex.com/account/newsletters","last_synced_at":null,"page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/this-week-in-global-development-6311778"},"episode":{"title":"Global Progress in the AI Era: Can a new effort scale AI for good to reach hundreds of millions?","slug":"global-progress-in-the-ai-era-can-a-new-effort-scale-ai-for-good-to-reach-hundreds-of-millions","published_at":"2026-03-09T17:15:18+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/this-week-in-global-development-6311778/global-progress-in-the-ai-era-can-a-new-effort-scale-ai-for-good-to-reach-hundreds-of-millions","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/this-week-in-global-development-6311778","url":"https://www.spreaker.com/episode/global-progress-in-the-ai-era-can-a-new-effort-scale-ai-for-good-to-reach-hundreds-of-millions--70551872","audio_url":"https://api.spreaker.com/download/episode/70551872/kanika_final_audio.mp3","summary":"Too many “AI for good” pilots fail before reaching the people who need them most. To solve this scaling crisis, Kanika Bahl, the CEO of Evidence Action, is stepping down from the helm of the organization to lead a new effort called the AI Access Initiative. Operating as an “AI-native NGO,” the initiative will bridge the gap between frontier tech labs and global development actors. Rather than funding endless pilots, it is focusing on scaling proven “big bets,” including clinical decision support for overstretched health systems and AI weather forecasting for smallholder farmers. Bahl warns that the development sector must abandon “business as usual” and aim for audacious goals — including reaching half of the world’s 3.5 billion people living in poverty — to prevent a rapidly widening digital divide.","meta_description":"Too many “AI for good” pilots fail before reaching the people who need them most. To solve this scaling crisis, Kanika Bahl, the CEO of Evidence Action, i…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":2501,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/this-week-in-global-development-6311778/episodes/global-progress-in-the-ai-era-can-a-new-effort-scale-ai-for-good-to-reach-hundreds-of-millions/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/this-week-in-global-development-6311778/global-progress-in-the-ai-era-can-a-new-effort-scale-ai-for-good-to-reach-hundreds-of-millions.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}