Unleashing Artificial Intelligence in Africa: The Need for ?

....................a Unified Voice and Quality Data.

I pondered on the striking absence of Africa's voice in this global discourse and questioned its position in shaping the AI narrative.

AI involves computer systems performing tasks traditionally handled by humans, such as decision-making, reasoning, and problem-solving. These systems use algorithms based on trained data to create models for specific tasks, as exemplified by Amazon Prime, Netflix, Bing, Chat GPT, and Tesla's self-driving cars.

Potential Impact in Africa: AI holds the potential to transform various sectors in Africa, including agriculture, health, logistics, finance, and education. Examples like Rwanda's use of AI-enabled drones for medicine delivery, Tanzania's Sarufi AI developing speech recognition for local languages, and others aiding farmers in crop disease prevention, telecommunications AI company called hu da ta in South Africa illustrate the possibilities.

Challenges to Adoption: The adoption of AI in Africa faces impediments like poor digital infrastructure, limited skills, inadequate funding, government policies, user behavior, and notably, the lack of structured data. The quality and quantity of data are crucial for effective AI, yet Africa struggles with poor, incompetent, and biased data, hindering accurate predictions.

The Role of African Voices: To overcome these challenges, a concerted effort is needed to involve more Africans in the conversation and implementation of AI. In addition to high-quality data, AI solutions must be contextualised to accommodate African diversity, culture, ethics, and address local concerns. Most recent example United Nations appointed AI Advisor who have little African representation or the ones there have never worked on policies.

The African Union's Initiatives: The African Union is actively working on an updated continental AI strategy, aiming to position Africa as a leader in ethically harnessing AI for socioeconomic development.#aiMOM always speaks of a human-centric approach to leverage opportunities while mitigating risks. However there is a clear notice amongst our African brothers and sisters that there is no LEADING - UNTINTING voice. Added to this is the lack of transparency of these 'supposed' policies. When you visit most country websites or search for links to actual policies. This lacks.

Wonder who placed the not on Google that there are 8 countries to date with an AI policy in Africa. While below 10, it begs if people are comparing apples with apples. Some of these countries listed have adopted their digital policies to cater for AI while other have adopted a small part like intellectual property law or cybersecurity law. This is frustrating even for #aiMOM.

Harmonising African Voices: Harmonising the diverse voices within Africa is crucial for effective AI integration. No easy task. We are fast developing a culture of 'borrowing' intellect. The existence of approximately 2,400 AI firms and hubs in Africa, highlights the need for unified AI strategies across all African Union member states. The Africa we want vision needs to really focus on unification if Africa is to survive!

International Collaboration: International collaboration is essential, and few stands out as a key player, contributing to AI development in Africa through research centers, innovation, ecosystem enhancement and mentorship programs. However, questions persist regarding who is shaping the AI discourse in Africa and how policymakers are addressing data quality and bias concerns.

As Africa strives to embrace AI, it is imperative to foster a unified voice, prioritise high-quality data, open source data, and ensure AI solutions are tailored to the continent's unique context.

Rely on your continent's tech expert to unlocking the full potential of Artificial Intelligence in Africa!

#aiMOM