New Delhi, May 29: Artificial Intelligence (AI) could almost double the value of the global digital economy to $23 trillion by 2025 from $12.9 trillion in 2017, said a Huawei study on Tuesday.

However, a scarcity of AI talent worldwide threatens this growth, showed the study, Global Connectivity Index (GCI) 2018, which is now in its fifth year. 

The digital economy accounted for 17.1 per cent of global GDP in 2017, it added. 

The research suggests that governments worldwide need to re-think education for a future workplace redefined by AI and start building a healthy, collaborative, and open AI ecosystem to attract and retain competitive AI talent.

"We are now witnessing a paradigm shift initiated by AI," said Kevin Zhang, President of Huawei Corporate Marketing. 

"According to the GCI study, advanced economies that saw growth from ICT development plateau are using Intelligent Connectivity to open new opportunities, while some developing economies are also finding ways to tap the new technology to speed up their own strategic growth plans," Zhang added. 

The study found that industries are embedding AI in key enabling technologies -- broadband, data centres, Cloud, big data and IoT (Internet of Things) -- to turn connectivity into Intelligent Connectivity, unleashing innovation to propel a new wave of economic growth. 

In 2018, the GCI broadened its research scope from 50 to 79 nations. For the first time, every nation in the Index saw GCI scores improve. 

From 64 in 2017, India improved its ranking to 63 in the 2018 GCI Index which was topped by the US.

The GCI 2018 also discovered that to effectively deploy AI on a large scale, countries need three equally important components in place -- computing power, labelled data and algorithms.

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Wellington: New Zealand’s youngest Member of Parliament Hana-Rawhiti Kareariki Maipi-Clarke has once again grabbed the headlines after a video of her staging the traditional Maori dance and ripping up a copy of a contentious bill during a House session went viral on social media.

A viral footage of the vote on the Treaty Principles Bill shows the 22-year-old Te Pati Maori MP interrupting the session by tearing apart a copy of the controversial bill before performing a haka. She is then joined by the people in the public gallery, prompting Speaker Gerry Brownlee to briefly suspend the House.

The ACT New Zealand party, a junior partner in the centre-right coalition government unveiled the Treaty Principles Bill last week. It proposes changes to some principles of the Treaty of Waitangi. The bill has sparked strong opposition from many Maori groups.

The Treaty of Waitangi, signed in 1840 between the British Crown and more than 500 Maori chiefs, established the framework for governance between the two parties. It remains a foundational document in New Zealand, with its clauses continuing to influence legislation and policy to this day.

The bill is being seen as undermining the rights of the country’s indigenous people by many Maori and their supporters. Notably, Maoris make up around 20% of New Zealand’s 5.3 million population.

As the proposed bill passed its first reading, hundreds of demonstrators embarked on a nine-day march, or hikoi, from New Zealand's north to the national capital of Wellington to voice their opposition.