IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/arx/papers/2502.12397.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Could AI Leapfrog the Web? Evidence from Teachers in Sierra Leone

Author

Listed:
  • Daniel Bjorkegren
  • Jun Ho Choi
  • Divya Budihal
  • Dominic Sobhani
  • Oliver Garrod
  • Paul Atherton

Abstract

Although 85% of sub-Saharan Africa's population is covered by mobile broadband signal, only 37% use the internet, and those who do seldom use the web. The most frequently cited reason for low internet usage is the cost of data. We investigate whether AI can bridge this gap by analyzing 40,350 queries submitted to an AI chatbot by 469 teachers in Sierra Leone over 17 months. Teachers use AI for teaching assistance more frequently than web search. We compare the AI responses to the corresponding top search results for the same queries from the most popular local web search engine, google.com.sl. Only 2% of results for corresponding web searches contain content from in country. Additionally, the average web search result consumes 3,107 times more data than an AI response. Bandwidth alone costs \$2.41 per thousand web search results loaded, while the total cost of AI is \$0.30 per thousand responses. As a result, AI is 87% less expensive than web search. In blinded evaluations, an independent sample of teachers rate AI responses as more relevant, helpful, and correct than web search results. These findings suggest that AI-driven solutions can cost-effectively bridge information gaps in low-connectivity regions.

Suggested Citation

  • Daniel Bjorkegren & Jun Ho Choi & Divya Budihal & Dominic Sobhani & Oliver Garrod & Paul Atherton, 2025. "Could AI Leapfrog the Web? Evidence from Teachers in Sierra Leone," Papers 2502.12397, arXiv.org, revised Mar 2025.
    • Handle: RePEc:arx:papers:2502.12397
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://arxiv.org/pdf/2502.12397
    File Function: Latest version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jenny C. Aker, 2011. "Dial “A” for Agriculture: A Review of Information and Communication Technologies for Agricultural Extension in Developing Countries - Working Paper 269," Working Papers 269, Center for Global Development.
    2. Andrea Ballatore & Mark Graham & Shilad Sen, 2017. "Digital Hegemonies: The Localness of Search Engine Results," Annals of the American Association of Geographers, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 107(5), pages 1194-1215, September.
    3. William Jack & Tavneet Suri, 2014. "Risk Sharing and Transactions Costs: Evidence from Kenya's Mobile Money Revolution," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 104(1), pages 183-223, January.
    4. Jenny C. Aker, 2011. "Dial “A” for agriculture: a review of information and communication technologies for agricultural extension in developing countries," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 42(6), pages 631-647, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Melia, Elvis, 2019. "The impact of information and communication technologies on jobs in Africa: a literature review," IDOS Discussion Papers 3/2019, German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS).
    2. Bahia,Kalvin & Castells,Pau & Masaki,Takaaki & Cruz,Genaro & Rodriguez Castelan,Carlos & Sanfelice,Viviane, 2021. "Mobile Broadband Internet, Poverty and Labor Outcomes in Tanzania," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9749, The World Bank.
    3. Sekabira, Haruna & Qaim, Matin, 2016. "Mobile Money, Agricultural Marketing, and Off-Farm Income in Uganda," GlobalFood Discussion Papers 234998, Georg-August-Universitaet Goettingen, GlobalFood, Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development.
    4. Emmanuel Olatunbosun Benjamin & Oreoluwa Ola & Hannes Lang & Gertrud Buchenrieder, 2021. "Public-private cooperation and agricultural development in Sub-Saharan Africa: a review of Nigerian growth enhancement scheme and e-voucher program," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 13(1), pages 129-140, February.
    5. World Bank, 2020. "Sudan Agriculture Value Chain Analysis," World Bank Publications - Reports 34103, The World Bank Group.
    6. George W. Norton & Jeffrey Alwang, 2020. "Changes in Agricultural Extension and Implications for Farmer Adoption of New Practices," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 42(1), pages 8-20, March.
    7. Hang Thu Nguyen-Phung & Miki Kohara & Secil Er, 2024. "The impact of ICT development on female employment and household’s well-being in Vietnam," The Japanese Economic Review, Springer, vol. 75(4), pages 951-978, December.
    8. Chris Knudson & Zack Guido, 2019. "The missing middle of climate services: layering multiway, two-way, and one-way modes of communicating seasonal climate forecasts," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 157(1), pages 171-187, November.
    9. repec:pcz:journl:v:6:y:2012:i:1:p:151-161 is not listed on IDEAS
    10. Anderson Jock R. & Birner Regina & Nagarajan Latha & Naseem Anwar & Pray Carl E., 2021. "Private Agricultural R&D: Do the Poor Benefit?," Journal of Agricultural & Food Industrial Organization, De Gruyter, vol. 19(1), pages 3-14, May.
    11. Sekabira, Haruna & Qaim, Matin, 2017. "Can mobile phones improve gender equality and nutrition? Panel data evidence from farm households in Uganda," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 95-103.
    12. Kondylis, Florence & Mueller, Valerie, 2012. "Seeing is Believing? Evidence from a Demonstration Plot Experiment in Mozambique," Mozambique Working Paper 1, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    13. Wantchekon, Leonard & Riaz, Zara, 2019. "Mobile technology and food access," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 344-356.
    14. Kamiche Zegarra, J. & Bravo-Ureta, B., 2018. "Are users of market information efficient? A stochastic production frontier model corrected by sample selection," 2018 Conference, July 28-August 2, 2018, Vancouver, British Columbia 275870, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    15. Nikolaos E. Petridis & Georgios Digkas & Leonidas Anastasakis, 2020. "Factors affecting innovation and imitation of ICT in the agrifood sector," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 294(1), pages 501-514, November.
    16. Landmann, D. & Feil, J.-H. & Lagerkvist, C.J. & Otter, V., 2018. "Designing capacity development activities of small-scale farmers in developing countries based on discrete choice experiments," 2018 Conference, July 28-August 2, 2018, Vancouver, British Columbia 277738, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    17. Hazrana, Jaweriah & Mishra, Ashok K., 2024. "Effect of input subsidies and extension services: Evidence from rice productivity in Bangladesh," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).
    18. Catherine Larochelle & Jeffrey Alwang & Elli Travis & Victor Hugo Barrera & Juan Manuel Dominguez Andrade, 2019. "Did You Really Get the Message? Using Text Reminders to Stimulate Adoption of Agricultural Technologies," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 55(4), pages 548-564, April.
    19. Morgan, Stephen N. & Mason, Nicole M. & Maredia, Mywish K., 2020. "Lead-farmer extension and smallholder valuation of new agricultural technologies in Tanzania," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 97(C).
    20. Qian Liu & Yongmu Jiang & Carl‐Johan Lagerkvist & Wei Huang, 2023. "Extension services and the technical efficiency of crop‐specific farms in China," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 45(1), pages 436-459, March.
    21. Deng, Xin & Xu, Dingde & Zeng, Miao & Qi, Yanbin, 2019. "Does Internet use help reduce rural cropland abandonment? Evidence from China," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:arx:papers:2502.12397. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: arXiv administrators (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://arxiv.org/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.