Many have hailed AI as the final equalizer, the game changer in tech, and many other well-worded phrases. But the lingering question for Africa is; is it really the huge opportunity it’s being touted to be?
Well, to answer that, let’s take a look at a few of the applications that AI is experimenting with in other regions already. We have had major advances in medicine, education, research and data, gaming, eCommerce, trading, predictive analytics, assistive technologies, and the list keeps growing.
In Africa though, we need to look at the potential opportunities of AI not to just mirror the western world, but to also have a reflection of our realities and the need for us to do more so as to achieve more for our growing populace. For example, a weather prediction app will have a very different effect on a Kenyan farmer than it will have on a Texas ranger.
So where do we begin to align our opportunities in Africa?
Well, I will take the example of Kenya, we have a diverse youthful and tech-savvy population.
Most are already using AI despite its challenges in terms of the African context to help in routine office tasks, assistive technologies like meeting summaries, easing the process of post-production for content creators, a small bit of image generation, where the AI can generate unbiased content etc.
It is however my strongest belief that our biggest opportunity lies not in what has already been built, but in building our own. All AI models so far launched rely on alot of Western history and knowledge and do ignore our current reality as Africans.
Take for example the below screengrabs of a video where I prompted for a simple video of Nairobi City during a storm;
With the growth of LLMs, it’s time we actually joined forces as to create self-learning models of our languages, culture, systems and beliefs, and therein lies the opportunity for us to be able to tell our story right.
But where do we start? Relearning our abandoned history and culture. Documenting any past that has previously been ignored and proudly celebrating our very many sub-cultures, languages, gods, and beliefs as it is the only way to actually accurately depict ourselves and in turn, document everything the right way.
This is because as a learned continent, we have no problem with our current understanding of our lives or looking into the future, but with what we lost due to colonization, such as our systems, cultures, beliefs, religions, languages, and even tribes.
As we embark on this monumental task however, the question remains, is it worth the investment?
Are the languages diverse enough to be viable for such investments or do we just focus on the larger languages spoken across tribes/countries like Swahili or Pidgin?
Have we held the technology companies responsible as they launch their tech in our countries for them to also take in our input as Africans?
Are there proven commercial uses of these technologies within the communities and countries they are developed? Yes!
Will the research bring back unhealed wounds and histories that may trigger fresh racial undertones? Probably, but some things will have to be faced so as to grow AI equally across the various continents!!!