AI may boost output but fuel divergence between rich and poor countries, IMF chief says

Booming investment in artificial intelligence, concentrated mostly in the U.S., could contribute between 0.1% and 0.8% to global growth, but could also cause more divergence between rich and poor countries, the head of the International Monetary Fund said on Thursday.

"If we were to extract that kind of boost of growth that would be very significant for the world," IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said during the IMF and World Bank annual meetings in Washington.

"The risk is that we may end up in a world where there is increasing productivity, but it is also a source of divergence within countries and across countries," she said.