At the UNESCO Forum on Artificial Intelligence in Morocco, experts reiterated the urgent need for a framework that recognises the peculiarities of the African continent. African countries, they said, cannot afford to wait and hope to ‘leapfrog’ what the rest of the world has already done.
Like elsewhere in the world, artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming a phenomenon on the continent. AI is finding expression in many sectors and industries. Companies like Aerobotics and Clevva (both in South Africa) are applying it to agriculture, and DataProphet (South Africa) and Hubs.ng (Nigeria) are using it in manufacturing and customer care respectively. Businesses in financial services are increasingly integrating AI into customer relations and engagement. For instance, Zipeline, a San Francisco-based robotics company, built the first drone airport in Rwanda from which it delivers blood by drone to almost half of all Rwanda’s blood transfusion centres. In the same vein, the use of chatbots by Nigerian banks to engage customers on social media has seen a remarkable growth in 2018.
Nonetheless, there is a concern that AI is not growing at a healthy pace compared to the rest of the world. In 2017, the combined value of AI markets in Middle East and Africa was estimated at just $66 million. Since then, big technology spenders like Google and Facebook have focused more on the market making it likely that the value in 2018 will outpace that of the previous year.
The volume of activities in AI so far has favoured elsewhere but Africa. A report released by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) found that the most active players in AI are in Asia, North America, and Europe. The report disclosed that China leads the pack with 85 per cent of its companies very active. USA (51%); France (49%) and Germany (49%); Switzerland (46%); and Austria (42%) alongside make up the top five countries in the world leading activities in AI.
These countries also dominate AI research activities according to the CAI AI Index 2018. In terms of output, Europe accounted for 28 per cent of AI papers in 2017, followed by China, which accounted for 25 per cent, and the US with 17 per cent. Africa does not feature anywhere in the report.
Experts at the UNESCO forum attribute this to the fact that most of the activities leading to AI adoption are driven by private sector, there is little government buy-in in the technology.
Ebenezer Njoh Mouelle, Cameroonian philosopher and author of several books told the audience in Morocco that African governments’ lack of investment in academic research on machine learning and artificial intelligence means that the continent has no voice and no strong representation in the future of technology. To prevent this from happening, he said, governments in Africa must lead from the front with resources committed to producing research by Africans to Africans.
Ikram Chairi, a doctor of machine learning at the Mohammed VI University Polytechnic, Ben Guerir, Morocco, also agreed that research is critical to leveraging opportunities and addressing the question of ethics in artificial intelligence as it relates to Africa.
For her, the continent needs education that is forward-looking and that cognizes the place of technology in the emerging new world in terms of addressing Africa’s developmental challenges.
At the end of the two day forum on Artificial Intelligence in Morocco, the participants came up with a resolution to promote artificial intelligence in Africa, as a lever for development, centred on the human dimension, anchored in universal ethical principles, as well as in human rights principles and standards.
The participants encouraged the African Union, regional economic communities, governments, academic institutions and professional associations, the private sector, civil society and international organisations, especially UNESCO, to promote a rights based, open, accessible AI through a multi-stakeholders approach as an instrument for the empowerment of African people and the positive transformation of African societies.
They also urged African governments to, among other things; integrate AI into national development policies and strategies as a vector for the emergence of African economies based on African cultures, values and knowledge;
Leverage AI to promote quality education with special focus on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) and scientific research and innovation as well as continuing to strengthen education for citizenship based on values and rights;
Use technology to fight against all forms of terrorism, violent extremism and other forms of violence;
Promote the disciplines of humanities, social sciences, and media and AI literacy that contribute to the development of critical thinking as well as skills necessary to apprehend the world of AI;
Promote an appropriate dialogue with different social actors, scientific communities and the private sector to develop an ethical framework ensuring adequate protection of principles such as autonomy, privacy, non-stigmatization, non-discrimination and protection of human dignity.
