The forum on Artificial Intelligence (AI) organised by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) in collaboration with Mohammed VI Polytechnic University opened in Benguerir, Morocco on Tuesday, 12 December with a primary focus on the future of technology in Africa.
Artificial intelligence is seen as the next phase of the digital revolution. It is seen as capable of disrupting nearly all industries. In Africa, that disruption has already begun with financial services witnessing the most adoption of various levels of artificial intelligence. Development of the sector is seen as critical to reducing poverty in many African countries. AI has the potential to make this a reality by changing the way people access financial services, save money, invest, and get insured.
Experts at the forum called for a continental strategy to deliver the potentials of AI. Africans need to be involved, not just as users but in its development as well.
In Nigeria for instance, financial technology companies are leveraging AI to address the huge gap in lending to small businesses and individuals. The major drivers of AI adoption growth on the continent and elsewhere in the world is the increase of digitised data in the global economy and the unlimited access to computing power and lower costs for data storage now available over the cloud.
A Whitepaper by International Data Corporation (IDC) predicts that global data traffic will grow to 163 zettabytes (a trillion gigabytes) by 2025 and this massive growth will constantly be feeding AI improvements.
In Benguerir, UNESCO is hoping to encourage stakeholders including government authorities, business leaders and the entire technology ecosystem to make artificial intelligence an important ally in the development drive.
The organisation stated that the initiatives on AI are still limited and they raise important ethical questions concerning the use of private data, freedom of expression and responsibility. It also added that the societal impact of AI technologies, which can replace human labour, is an issue yet to be addressed.
The global economic impact of AI revolution is around 16 trillion dollars, generating empowerment opportunities of about 2.3 million. These facts reflect the emergency of taking first steps to involve AI in the future. So it will be necessary to ensure that people are able to design and develop AI systems and applications, also in direct and deep collaboration with research and major technology operators.
“AI is fundamentally reshaping how work is done, allowing for a more efficient allocation of resources leading to increased productivity and, in the case of government, improving the delivery of services to citizens,” Microsoft noted recently in a report titled ‘Artificial Intelligence for Africa: An Opportunity for Growth, Development, and Democratisation.’
AI, the report also stated, will also generate new, high-value jobs requiring technical skills, such as network engineers in the banking sector or web programmers in the retail industry.
Ibrahim Youssry, regional general manager of Microsoft, MEA noted that AI development efforts must be a partnership between government and businesses, with the former providing the enabling environment for the technology to thrive.
“Demand for data scientists, robotics experts, and AI engineers will increase significantly. Further, AI unlocks the value of data, enhances cognitive process, and improves predictive capabilities. This would allow governments in the region to drive better policy and decision making,” it added.
AI potential will however not be achieved without the active participation of government.
Betelhem Dessie observed that the concern of most governments is the loss of jobs that AI will bring about. Hence, from the beginning, there is a negative perception of the technology which is limiting.
The best approach could be building AI from a human-centric model, where tomorrow’s challenges and citizens’ aspirations are taken into account.
The 4th industrial revolution could be a major opportunity for the African continent to create an artificial intelligence model where human is put at the center. Therefore, African could work on building an approach that focuses on strengthening soft skills, fighting disparities and promoting equality in terms of opportunities and gender. Not only will it be essential to support private investments in Africa, it will also foster civil society initiatives.
“AI is emerging as a critical enabler of digital inclusion and innovation and is expected to improve our society and human rights,” Takashi Egawa, a researcher noted during the forum, since it is a very powerful tool, we also have to be careful that it is used for good. For example, human, not AI must control the system and be accountable.”
