Why only third-world nations? The inhabitants of "third-world" countries do not produce lsss economic output than first-world countries because they are inferior in intelligence to people in the West. It's all in the education and culture, and there is no reason to believe that this could not be adapted if human-level AI is reached.

It is incredibly myopic to believe that the Western would would be shielded from the impact of such a development. But this is really beside the point I wanted to bring up. My key point is that this argument shows that AI could constitute a threat to humanity in the long term, and that it is necessary to provide more funding for research on AI safety. The economic incentives will bring this stuff to the center stage once it becomes possible, and by then we better have a damn good idea how to ensure that super-human AI keeps acting in our interests.