Artificial intelligence can help inform policies and crisis response by quickly generating easy to understand policy information and advice. While AI has opportunities to reduce bias, current versions show bias toward international sources with less reliance on knowledge from developing countries. To address this, customizing AI applications through country-specific data repositories and custom-built tools can generate initial policy recommendations that are then validated by advisors before being presented to policymakers. The CGIAR is planning to develop a customized AI chatbot combined with an advisory mechanism in Kenya.

1. Promoting Science-Policy Interfaces
How can Artificial Intelligence Support Crisis
Response and Policy Making?
NPS Egypt Seminar: Food Prices, Poverty, and Household Diets
May 22, 2023
Institute of National Planning (INP)
Presenter*: Clemens Breisinger
Based on a forthcoming blog by Breisinger, Keenan, Koo et al.

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Science informs polices and crisis response
• Science can help designing
policies and responding to crises
• Science-based policy advice must
be:
• Credible & Relevant
• Understandable
• Timely
• Artificial intelligence can quickly
produce easy to understand policy
information and advice.

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AI generated policy advice
BARD (Google) ChatGPT

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AI generate policy advice (follow-up)
BARD (Google) ChatGPT

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AI: Opportunities
• Recommendations are broadly consistent with existing literature
• AI-powered chatbots have been trained on large text datasets scraped from
the internet.
• The quality of the model-generated responses is only as good as the quality
of the data they are trained on.
• Recent analysis shows that open access publications from IFPRI and CGIAR
knowledge repositories are among those sources.
• AI tools draw on multiple sources and have the potential to reduce bias that can
arise from individual researchers.
• AI based policy recommendations can be generated within seconds.

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• Information generated by chatbots does not (yet) disclose the sources
• Legal concerns about using content without consent, especially when it comes to the
use of copy-righted information from private companies.
• Current versions of AI powered chatbots are biased towards international sources,
implying less reliance on knowledge repositories from countries in the global south.
AI: Challenges

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Possible solutions and next steps
• Customize AI:
• This requires targeting AI applications to custom-built repositories and moving beyond standard
AI applications (e.g. ChatGPT) and programming custom applications.
• This also provides an opportunity to include more country-specific data sources, for example
Egyptian university libraries, publications of Egyptian research institutions
• Applications such as “Consensus” can identify the sources used in their responses and identify scientists
who can provide verbal or written input to policymakers designing new policies.
• Customized AI can be used to produce “first-cut” policy recommendations and then advisors or scientific
advisory committees can validate them before passing on to policy makers.
• The CGIAR Initiatives on National Policies and Strategies and Digital Innovations together with national
partners are planning to develop a customized AI-chatbot combined with a scientific advisory mechanism
in Kenya.