Responsible AI in Africa
My conversation with Dr. Kutoma Wakunuma
This week I stopped by De Montfort University in Leicester, England to speak with Dr. Kutoma Wakunuma, an expert in Responsible AI in Africa. We discussed opportunities and challenges, the importance of gender equality, and Ubuntu and Ujamma philosophies. I may not be a very good podcast host, but at least I had fun!
The interview transcript appears below, lightly edited for clarity. I have augmented the transcript with a detailed set of “Editor’s notes”, including videos, pictures, news, and maps.
Okay, before we start, let's do a high five to psych ourselves up. *HIGH FIVE* All right. So I'm here with Professor Kutoma Wakunuma. How was my pronunciation?
Spot on.
So we're at De Montfort University in Leicester, England. Yes. And famous alumni, Charles Dance from Game of Thrones. Are you a Game of Thrones fan?
I am, yes.
He played Tywin Lannister. He graduated from here. I don't know if you know that.
[Surprised]. No.
It seems there's a lot of researchers that specialize in Africa in Leicester. Is that true?
We're getting there in a sense. One of the things that got me into this area really was because I felt there weren’t a lot of researchers voices being heard on the global platform with respect to AI and Africa. So the numbers are growing. But whether the research is getting out there….? Yeah, we're slowly getting out there.
And is this region in particular trying to specialize in AI? Because you co-edited a Book on Responsible AI in Africa and both of your co-editors, I think, are from Leicester.
Yeah. So my co-editors are both from De Montfort University and we were actually working within the same department, the center for Computing and Social Responsibility. And we felt that, as I said earlier, there wasn't a lot out there with regards to to AI and Africa. So hence the the book.
So it actually has had a very, very good response to the extent that we are being invited to now consider doing a series on Responsible AI and Africa. So that just shows that there was something lacking within the space of AI generally because they weren't those African voices or indeed African researchers. So if you notice with regards to the book, most of the contributors were African scholars or indeed scholars that had an interest in researching around AI and its impact on implications on the African continent.
So why did you get involved? So you're from Zambia, but are there any other reasons that you wanted to specialize in AI in Africa? Because obviously there's some researchers from Africa that might have other interests.
Oh, yeah. I mean, I've always had an interest in anything technology that contributes to the social and economic development of Africa. That's why my PhD topic was around Information Communication Technologies for development. And so of course technologies evolve over time. And so my research area has always been around this kind of topic, looking at the impact of current and emerging technologies, both on the, I suppose, Global South, particularly Africa. And then also I've done a lot of work related to the social and ethical impact of technologies on the Global North, particularly in Europe, obviously, because, you know, I'm working in Europe.
But yeah, my focus has always been both on the Global south and Global North. So it hasn't been a surprise that I have now gone to look at the impact or the aspects of AI only because it's very topical. It's something that is actually being talked about a lot and there's a lot of use, you know, around AI, a lot of developments, as you indicated before, we kind of started this. There's a lot of a policy talk around AI. So it would have been remiss of me not to be involved in AI.
And also, one of the things that has interested me a lot when I joined DMU in 2009 had to do with emerging technologies, looking at emerging technologies and the associated ethical issues. The project was called Ethical. So one of the technologies that were on the list — because we were looking at what would be happening in the next couple of years with regards to upcoming technologies — was AI.
But of course, I mean AI has been talked about for a very, very long time, but I think it's kind of gained a lot of traction in the recent years. And so it was a natural for me to be interested in this particular technology, just like I'm going to be interested in the next one because it's all about, you know, understanding their impact on modern society. And that has been my research interest.
So the book was published in early 2023. Over the past year we've had ChatGPT, we've had MidJourney, Adobe Firefly, Dall-E, a whole bunch of other technologies come out. How are you feeling now? How has the past year changed your thinking on on AI with the kind of emergence of all these technologies all at once that seem to be quite advanced and able to do things that humans can do? And it seems we're a little ahead of the curve of where people thought we would be. The AI people thought we would have at this point.
Yeah. I mean, it's almost like, okay, blink and, you know, you'd have missed a new technology that, you know, popped up overnight. But I think it's to be expected. Now obviously technologies are dynamic. They've always been dynamic you know and they always change. But I think the pace at which these technologies are being developed now, it's astonishing to say the least.
But I think the there's also a sort of a relation there. You know, it's not like for instance, ChatGPT — I mean there's obviously related to AI — so I think it's just more advancements that we need to expect from these technologies because people are just not sitting around saying, oh, okay, “So artificial intelligence is here and that's that.” We can just use it as is. People are always expecting developments. People are always expecting, you know, just new things that can positively impact our lives. But of course, sometimes that's not always the case.
And this is one of the things that we within this center try to look at. What are the social and ethical implications of these particular technologies. Because sometimes, yeah, they look fantastic on paper and in terms of what they're supposed to be doing. But then when it comes to really using them or what they truly are able to to achieve, sometimes the impacts on citizens is not what has always been expected. And so, yeah, I mean, I'm not surprised with the speed with which the technologies are being developed. And I'm sure in the coming years we can expect even more advanced technologies.
Does it make you more optimistic or more nervous from the responsible use point of view. The technologies are more powerful in some ways than previous technologies.
I suppose they are more powerful in as far as we perhaps allow them to be. And this then gets us to the responsible part, isn't it? We need to understand the extent to which these technologies can and should be responsibly used, or responsibly deployed or responsibly designed. And if we are not looking at these aspects, then yes, there should be room for concern. I mean, we're talking about ChatGPT, for example. One of the things that we've been sort of grappling with or discussing is, yes, the technology is fantastic and it's already bolted and people are using it. Students are going to use it. We can't say, oh, you can't use this technology.
But there are issues around, for example, plagiarism, potentially presenting work. That's perhaps not necessarily your own, but how can we can encourage students to learn in a more responsible way, to use the technology in a more responsible way, other than, you know, where it will make the whole education system become questionable in a sense. So, yeah, it's a double edged sword if you like, but I think I'm both excited, of course, because, the technologies are offering us a lot of interesting, opportunities, but at the same time, yes, you're right. There is concern, particularly in terms of how we ensure that these technologies are used responsibly.
Editor’s note: The use of AI in education is a topic of interest for many. The Russell Group in the UK, a consortium of prestigious universities, has recently created a set of AI usage principles. University College London, a member of the Russell Group, now has a Generative AI page outlining guidelines for usage as well as tips for students.
Elsewhere, faculty are taking a diverse approach to leveraging Generative AI at business schools around the world. Professors Ethan Mollick and Lilach Mollick from the Wharton Business School at theUniversity of Pennsylvania have developed a five-part YouTube series for instructors and students on how to use new AI technologies in the classroom.
And so when it comes to something like gender, I know you've studied gender and technology. So in Africa, if we take, for example, the literacy rates of women and girls, about ten percentage points lower than for men and depending on the country, sometimes 30 percentage points lower. So. Does it concern you? Or maybe it excites you? The possibility of these new technologies. Do you think that because literacy rates in education for women in Africa are lower, that maybe they won't be able to fully take advantage of the technologies the same way men will, and that might exacerbate existing gender discrepancies. Or or maybe you think it'll actually empower women, potentially help them catch up?
I mean, the hope is that the technology should be able to empower women. And I mean, one of the things when we look at SDGs, [The UN Sustainable Development Goals], one of the SDGs is to improve equality and education for women. And in order to do that, technology is one of the things that is looked at as able to help in that arena.
But we know that for the longest time it's been, as you've rightly said, in terms of the statistics that you've just provided, it's been men or young men who have had the opportunity to get into into schools, to be able to use the technologies a lot more than women have been. And so I think now a lot of governments are kind of — I'm hoping that — they're waking up to the fact that they can actually use these technologies to actually improve women's or girls education, and this can only be done starting from an early age, where girls can be taught, as you know, boys can be encouraged and taught to use these technologies to do the coding and things like that.
Before, what used to happen is that girls were actually being encouraged to do so-called soft subjects, whereas the guys or the boys would be encouraged to to do computing subjects and things like that. So if you don't start at an early age, treating both girls and boys as equals and able to to use the technologies, then it becomes problematic as they go, as they progress in their education, because how do you expect the girls to then catch up, say, at the secondary school or even at university level, when they haven't really been familiar with these particular technologies at an early age?
And and this just doesn't start from the education system, you know, as provided by governments. But it starts from school, from homes. Girls, normally have to do a lot of work, especially in African setups. You know, they have to cook, they have to to clean, they have to help in the kitchen, you know, things like that. Things are changing slowly, but not so much.
I mean, when I'm talking about this particular aspect, I'm reminded because I think it was in August, we went home [to Zambia]. I have a daughter and then I have a nephew. And so we went home to see my mom. So she has three grandkids, two girls, one boy. And so she had bought these plates for them, like cereal bowls, and so one was blue. And so obviously she had bought it for the boy. And then the others were more feminine, sort of so-called feminine colors, you know, pink. And, you know, I can't remember. The other one was a slightly baby green, if you like. And and so my nephew grabs the pink one and my mom says, oh no, no, no. You’re a boy, you shouldn't use this type of color. So he goes, but why? You know, she goes, oh, because you're a boy.
So really the reason why I'm giving this example is because it starts from the home, right? I mean, this was just a small thing, but imagine when it's time to educate them how the separation begins. You know, like, okay, he's expected to do so called masculine, you know, subjects. Whereas the girls may be expected to do more softer subjects. And so even when they start going into into the education system the thought process holds up to the time they graduate, and that can be problematic for for females.
So now I think it's about awareness. It's about making sure that, you know, technologies aren’t seen as if it's this scary thing that girls cannot necessarily do. And I think with that, then we can start looking at, you know, more equality in terms of education, in terms of pay grades, in terms of technology jobs, because we can't ignore technology in society. And otherwise, if we do, particularly on the girls and women's side, it becomes problematic because then one half of the population will forever remain behind. And that cannot be a good thing, especially if we're talking about achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.
Editor’s note: Adult and child literacy is UN Sustainable Development Goal 4.6.2.
According to the World Bank there is a 13 percentage point difference in literacy rate between adult men and adult women (those 15 and older) in Sub-Saharan Africa. The rate for men is 73.8% and for women it is 60.9%). The difference in some countries is much higher. For example, in the Republic of Guinea men have a 30 percentage point advantage over women (61.2% for men compared to 31.3% for women).
You've studied this actually right. Mobile phone usage and the kind of the gendered usage of mobile phones, even when women have access to mobile phones, you know, a new technology, in some cases, men govern when they could use it, how they could use it. So on the face of it, it looks like access is growing because more women have mobile phones, but they're not able to use the technology and leverage it the same way that men are. Might the same thing happened with AI? Reading that research and learning about it made me a bit nervous.
Yeah, I mean, potentially that that could happen actually. An example, one of the papers in our book, which I call wrote with one of the contributors. Talked about using chatbots in the financial sector in Nigeria. And one of the things was the feminization of the use of chatbots to sort of attract customers, to have the the soft side and, you know, just to make sure that people are kind of comfortable because it's a nurturing sort of thing to have. And this is the thing that is attributed to women time and time again. So we see that even in AI, this is potentially going to be happening. And it is happening.
And to a certain extent, it's almost as if it's sexualizing women. Like, or they can't necessarily do things beyond being soft, being feminine when it comes to AI. And that can be problematic. So it's almost as if whatever technology comes along, there's an issue in terms of how women are expected to use it or can use it, or how it can be applied to a particular sector just to make sure that, you know, that sector is inviting. I mean, it's like this thing of having women to dress a certain way just to make sure that they look presentable and, you know, things like that. And so this also gets to the technologies, and in this case, AI perhaps may not necessarily be that different. And so we need to be on the lookout for such particular happenings.
Editor’s note: According to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Africa also has one of the widest gender divides in terms of internet usage: 35% for men compared to 24% for women.
Yeah. So it's a combination of government and policy and maybe some changes in cultural norms.
More changes in cultural norms, I think, than government policy, because I would be hard pressed to find a deliberate government policy that says, you know, women should use technology in a particular way; that would be quite obvious. But I think cultural norms can actually potentially transfer to more policy related aspects, if you like.
But cultural norms are also harder to change potentially than government policy.
Oh yes. Absolutely.
Do you have any ideas or have you seen any research on how that might be done effectively? I don't even know if it's something you can plan.
In terms of changing the cultural norms?
Yeah. Or does it just take time?
It does take time. I mean, I can see again using my own mother's mother mothers and example. I mean, sometimes it's I don't want to call it a fear of using the technology, but sometimes it's like, ah, you know, I really can't use that technology a lot. Or it's a slow process, like for her to use certain features on the phone, she's not very confident. So she kind of then deviates to a man and said, okay, I'll ask this guy because obviously he's a man and he understands. He understands these things perfectly well. And but things are changing. You know, a lot of yeah, girls are getting into the use of these technologies, perhaps not at the pace that we would like them to, but yeah, the gender norms are changing. Still, there's a lot of resistance. But you can see that changes. Changes is there. It's going to happen sooner rather than later.
What do you think is causing that change? Is it is it just globalization or…?
I think it's globalization. I think it's also the fact that the technologies are actually making people have access to information beyond their own bubble. Right. So you have TikTok, you have Facebook, you have Instagram, you have all these applications that people are able to have access to. And so they see what is happening in other countries, what youths or adults are doing. And then they think, “Oh yeah, we can we can do this as well,” you know. So yeah, you kind of see those changes happening. And I think for the most part technology has a lot to do with that. So I think in a sense it's a good thing. But then also, as I said before, we have to keep an eye out in terms of how that use or the access to that particular information is done in a responsible way and used in a responsible way.
Editor’s note: To take one example of African TikTok usage, according to the Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2023, which looked at news and social media consumption habits in 46 countries, Kenya had high TikTok adoption. Among English speaking 18 to 50 year-olds, 54% of Kenyans had used TikTok in the past week (with 29% using it specifically for news consumption).
So Africa is a big place, a diverse place: 54 countries, 1.2 billion people, roughly. What's the best way to think about a Pan-African AI solution versus individual country solutions? Because Africa is so diverse? I mean, we do have the African Union. Yeah, which includes most countries in Africa. But again, there's a lot of diversity. Is it even useful to think about AI policy at the African level, or do we really need to be thinking about it more locally at the at the country level or even local level?
I mean, obviously we need to start from individual countries, right? I mean, just think about America, how big America is. And you have the federal system, right, where they have their own regulations, if you like, or, you know, they do their own stuff. But at the end of the day, you still have the [federal] government, isn't it. The EU, European Union, and they have all these different countries, but they have managed to come together to form this one union. So why can't Africa do the same?
So if we look at the EU, just because the EU has different countries does not necessarily mean that we have to look at the different countries as if they are one homogeneous entity to the EU. They are different. But at the same time they ascribe to certain similar values. And this is why, you know, they have the European Union. And perhaps that's why, you know, there is the United States of America in that way. And I truly believe that it can be the same with regards to to Africa and the African policy, if you like. And yes, there will be differences because each country will have different experiences and AI is going to have an impact in different ways. So for instance, perhaps Zambia. You know, perhaps Zambia might need to concentrate a lot more on agriculture, for example on health care compared to, for example, Egypt, which may need to look at the application of AI in different sectors. And so they'll probably come up with different policies around AI. But at the same time, there will be a need to have those looked at in a holistic way under one umbrella body, which is the African Union.
Because I think having that one umbrella body, which perhaps we can look at it as one that monitors, one that overlooks the AI African government governance policy might be quite helpful in that respect. Because, I mean, there's already an EU AI act, right? And so that may not necessarily be representative of African needs. And so it becomes imperative to have an African AI policy as well that can speak to — I don't want to use the word “compete” — but you know that can look at AI African needs in in a more holistic manner than if individual countries were to look at that. Because at some point, you know, different geographical regions through a bigger body may need to be talking to each other in terms of what that means when it comes to a policy.
Editor’s note: The African Union ratified the Convention on Cyber Security and Personal Data Protection on 8 June 2023 (also known as the Malabo Convention). It covers data access and privacy, encryption, cyber crime, and other foundational areas that undergird AI training, usage, and deployment.
Editor’s note. Here are some statistics to frame the next question:
Government AI readiness. According to the 2022 Government AI Readiness Report from Oxford Insights, Africa is the worst performing region, with no countries listed in the top 50 spots and only 7 in the top 100.
Electricity. When adding this note I found that the statistic I quoted in the interview question below — that 40% of Africans still do not have access to electricity — may have been conservative. The International Energy Agency pegs the figure at 50%. The difference seems to be that I was quoting a pre-pandemic figure.
Household computers. According to the United Nations, only 11% of learners in Sub-Saharan Africa have access to household computers. For some countries the figure is close to zero.
Literacy rates. The average literacy rate in Africa is 67.3% according to the World Bank. Compare that with an upper-middle-income country like Turkey, which has a literacy rate of 96.7%.
Internet usage. According to the International Telecommunication Union, internet usage is just 40% in Africa. The next lowest usage region is Asia-Pacific with 64% usage. Compare those figures with internet usage in Europe, which is around 90%
Public heath. Let’s take a lesser known public health risk: road deaths. UN Sustainable Development Goal 3.6 is to halve the number of global deaths and injuries from road traffic accidents. I’ll take this as an example because in graduate school I had a classmate that got hit by a car and was seriously injured (this was in Kenya if I recall). Road deaths per 100,000 people is 7 in Europe compared to 27 in Africa (4x greater). If we think about an AI technology like self-driving cars potentially helping that problem we run into the issue of infrastructure: today’s cars heavily leverage road markings for orientation. However, in Africa many roads are unpaved. Botswana, one of Africa’s richest and most politically stable countries, has only a third of its roads paved. If you take a country like the Central African Republic, only 3% of it’s roads are paved.
I guess there are unique challenges that countries in Africa face that countries in other parts of the world don't. So I did a little bit of research here, 40% of Africans still do not have access to electricity. So that's a common problem across all of Africa. Same thing with household computers, rates are low. Literacy, rates are low. Internet penetration 40% in Africa, 90% in Europe. So I think there are some common...
There are exactly there are some common denominators there with regards to electricity. There's what they call…I don't know what the name is. Is it blackout or something? Whereby they at a certain time they need to switch off electricity just to sort of reserve some. So this is happening in South Africa. It has happened in Zambia quite a lot in the past. Not so much now. So there is an issue there, you know.
Africa doesn't take computer access in homes as a given because they're not there. You know, we take it for granted here. We have PCs everywhere in our homes. We have laptops and things like that. That's not the case in many African homes, particularly when you are looking at rural areas. So think about urban areas where they have access. You know, you go to Lusaka for example, which is a capital city of of Zambia. Yeah, it's very well developed. But you step out. I know you talked about having visited Zambia some years back. I don't know if you visited rural area?
Editor’s note: Satellite imagery has been used to estimate the population in rural and urban areas in Africa. According to the OCIDs 2020 report “Africa’s Urbanisation Dynamics” report, about 50% of Africa is still rural. The rural-urban divide can have big implications for internet and communication technologies. For instance, in 2023 the International Telecommunication Union estimated that in the least developed countries — which include many countries in Africa, but also in other parts of the world — internet access was 52% in urban areas compared to 28% in rural areas. This divide extends to other data-heavy technologies: 4G mobile coverage was 79% in urban areas compared to just 32% in rural areas.
Efforts to expand internet infrastructure are expected to be extremely expensive. Achieving mobile broadband access for all of Africa has been estimated by the World Bank to cost $100 billion. Mobile broadband includes 3G, 4G, and 5G networks. Many technologies companies are investing in improving internet connectivity in Africa (see the Editor’s note below on technology companies).
The discrepancy also extends to other areas of infrastructure like electricity. According to the World Bank, 80% of urban areas in Sub-Saharan Africa have access to electricity compared to just 30% for rural areas.
Yeah. I remember that Mfuwe was one rural region in Zambia we visited.
Yea, exactly. So you can't really compare the urban areas to the rural areas. They do not necessarily have internet connection. We need to do something about that. So then we're talking about the use of AI in education, the use of AI in health care. We need policies around that to make sure that that becomes a reality, especially in rural areas. Because how can we talk about AI when we do not have the the infrastructure in rural areas? So we're just talking about AI in urban areas and then that's it. But there's so many people that are living in rural areas that actually need this particular technology.
And if we can't ensure that those hard to reach areas have this technology, then there is no way that we can ever talk about achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. It's just going to be an impossibility unless we're saying, okay, you know, we're only talking about this for urban areas. But then what good is it because then the divisions just become exacerbated. You know, the AI divide if you like. So yeah, there's a lot of work to be done. And I think policy around that is also key. And yeah, so these differences are there and they need to be looked at urgently I think.
Editor’s note: In Summer of 2013 I went on a one-month study abroad to Zambia. We went to Lusaka, the capital city, but spent the majority of our time in rural areas including Mfuwe, Chongwe, and Katete. We visited schools, community centers, health clinics, wildlife reserves, farms, and agricultural centers. Some places we stayed indeed had very limited electricity.
The trip was one of the most incredible experiences of my life. Here is a photo of the group visiting a goat farm. We got to try milking the goats, which is much harder than it looks.
Hard to use AI if you don't have electricity.
Exactly. I mean when I started doing my PhD that was when the internet and mobile phones were just starting. And you know, those talk about, oh, you know, internet information is power because obviously you're going to use the internet to access information and things like that. And that that was okay. It was it was right to a certain degree. But then if you're talking about the internet, as, you know, being powerful but then the rural areas don’t necessarily have internet. What use is it to them?
So basically what they needed was to have access to mobile phones. Because for them what was important was the communication. Right? It wasn't necessarily that they needed to access the internet, to access information on jobs or whatever. It was information that they needed. Because I did a lot of work — you know, I went through areas to sort of understand what the situation was — and so this is the same thing with AI. We're not talking about how I can be very effective, can be very impactful in terms of disease diagnosis, in terms of helping with agriculture, with predicting the weather, with education, with so many things. And that's right. But at the same time, if we're not getting these in rural areas, then it becomes problematic. And we need to to be able to do that.
Editor’s note: Access to electricity in Africa is slowly improving. The map below from the World Bank shows that access to electricity increased between 2010 and 2022 for nearly all countries in Africa. Light green is an increase of 0 to 2 percentage points while dark green is an increase of more than 2 percentage points.
The book talks about the four industrial revolutions. So there is steam power, then electricity, then internet and communication technologies, and now AI is the fourth. Africa has to go through three of the four basically all at once if it really wants to use AI. It's going to be a challenge.
I actually don't know that it has to go through all four because, I mean it's there now. It's happening. So maybe we ought to be talking about crossing some of these off. Okay. You know crossing over to the next one because geez, how long are we going to wait until that happens?
But yeah, I think when you're looking at rural areas, perhaps in certain geographical locations, yes, perhaps Africa will have to go through all these stages, but in other areas, maybe not so much.
So this is how complex Africa can be, you know, and there are countries in Africa that are far more developed, you know, and areas within countries that are far more developed. And so again, this is a balancing act that needs to be to be looked at carefully. So because sometimes you think, oh, there's a particular country that's very, very developed and that it's great, everything is fine. But really when you look at that particular country, it could be just one area within that country, but other issues may be brewing in other parts of that particular country. So, yeah. In that respect, it is a bit complex. We can say that. You know, they'll have to go through all these stages. Some stages will have to be jumped over, whereas others will need to be addressed. We looked at in that way.
Are there any countries or policies that you've seen that excite you? That you think, “Hey, this country, you know, they've got it together,” or they're on the right path in terms of policy, either for infrastructure development or for AI.
Editor’s note: According to my analysis of the OCED’s AI policy library, there are now 850 distinct AI policies worldwide.
I think South Africa is doing very well. And my own country, Zambia, I'm not trying to be biased, but it's getting there. I mean, we have this new government that's doing a lot of interesting stuff. So they are looking at AI policy and Kenya as well is doing quite well in terms of looking at AI policy. And there's a lot of innovation that is happening. And I think Ghana as well. And so a few countries are getting there. But remember we have 54 countries.
Nigeria I know is making a big push trying to trying to train 3 million people over the next three years with AI and other kinds of technologies.
Yeah, exactly.
Africa in that sense, it's a new frontier. There's a lot happening, a lot of exciting things that are happening and that are going to come out. And yeah, it's a question of watching this space, you know, and and I'm sure, you know, all these big organizations, Microsoft, Google and the rest are thinking of, and perhaps, are actually getting in there and trying to do a lot of interesting things. But then there's also a question of power and dependency and things like that. So, but that's another discussion to be had around that.
Editor’s note: Some of the positive initiatives from large technology companies discussed in Dr. Wakunuma’s book on Responsible AI in Africa include:
Microsoft’s collaboration with Nigeria to accelerate digital transformation.
Microsoft’s Airband program aimed at expanding high-speed internet in Africa and Latin America.
Facebook/Meta’s Free Basics program to provide internet across 32 countries in Africa (it has received both praise and criticism). See this article in The Guardian for more or this research paper.
Facebook/Meta’s 2Africa initiative to lay undersea cables to provide high-speed internet to Africa.
Google’s funding of the Lacuna Fund, “the world’s first collaborative effort to provide data scientists, researchers, and social entrepreneurs in low- and middle-income contexts globally with the resources they need to produce labeled datasets that address urgent problems in their communities.” The datasets encompass African languages like Wolof, Igbo, Hausa, Fongbe, Ewe, Kabiye, Kiswahili and Chichewa, many of which aren’t present on popular translation services.
Startup acquisitions by tech companies. Since the book was released more movement has been made in this area. For instance, Amazon announced their FinTech Africa Accelerator, which offers consulting support as well as $25,000 in AWS cloud credits. According to an article about Amazon’s FinTech accelerator which appeared in Tech in Africa, the African fintech industry raised more than $2 billion in venture capital in 2022. Amazon has made other investments in Africa as well; just last week Reuters reported that Amazon plans to launch an online shopping service in South Africa in 2024, only the second African country aside from Egypt where the U.S-based. e-commerce giant has set up a locally-dedicated website.
Editor’s note: Nigeria’s Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Dr. 'Bosun Tijani, has been pushing to modernize Nigeria’s technology sector. In October of 2023 he announced a new AI initiative to provide up to 5,000,000 naira (about $6,500) to 45 AI researchers and start-ups. However, his most ambitious effort is the 3MTT program (3 Million Technical Talent), which aims to train 3 million technology workers over the next three years, with 30,000 trained over the next 3 months. Dr. Tijani received his PhD at the University of Leicester, the same city where Dr. Wakunuma teaches.
One thing I found interesting in the book was the discussion of, I'm going to do my best to pronounce — it Ubuntu and Ujamaa — philosophies. So Ubuntu roughly translates to, “I am because we are.” And then Ujamaa is, “Spirit of brotherhood.” So these are really philosophies baked into the African culture. I guess around interconnectedness, solidarity, community, things like that, that are maybe a little bit different than how we think about things in the West, which are more about independence. And there's a lot of discussion in the book about what that might mean for for policy or for data sets and things like that. What can be done from a practical point of view? I had trouble trying to think about, like, what is that going to look like in practice?
That's a very good question. I think one of the reasons why we we looked at this and we are still looking at these philosophies is it’s about community, right? And Africa thrives on it. I know it can sound a bit romantic in that sense, but the “I am because we are” really looks at the cohesiveness of a community because you can't bring up a community on your own. You know, you can't develop as an individual without making sure that the community is developing or has developed or is coming along with you.
And so basically what this might mean in terms is that, I mean, just think about the issue of health care, right? Or agriculture? Because these are things that Africa depends on a lot. A lot of African countries. And if you're introducing artificial intelligence in the health care system, you can't just introduce it for individuals. Right. Because one it's going to be really expensive, okay. And so you have a few pockets of people that can be able to to access it. But the rest of them will not benefit. And so what is the use of that?
So basically we're saying artificial intelligence should be looked at as a community. What's the word I'm looking at community need to communitarianism or something. But it's to do with community right. In order to make sure that there is this sustainable development that is going on. So we must make sure that every person has access to this particular technology so that we can then claim in a much more comprehensive way that there is development that is taking place in terms of health care, in terms of education. Again, the education aspect that I was talking about. So if we're only talking about introducing artificial intelligence in, for example, urban areas or having it actually work in urban areas and leaving out rural areas, we can we cannot claim to have overcome gender inequalities in education or indeed those disparities between the rural and the urban areas. What's going to happen is that there will be a division and that division or the gap is going to get bigger and bigger.
So in terms of policy, what needs to happen is that governments, civil society organizations, the education system, just all the individuals on the ground need to make sure that everybody has access as a community to ensure that everyone benefits from these technologies. This is what Ubuntu means. It's not about being individualistic. I mean, the West can afford to be individualistic because there's the welfare system. We have laptops and technologies in our homes. You know, we have become accustomed to that. Right? So it's not really about thinking about the community and things like that. We are already on that individual level.
So perhaps for us before we can get to that level — I don't even know that we want to get to that level because then it becomes really isolating. It becomes really lonely when you're doing things on your own. We need to be looking at this in a community, cohesive way, and this is what Ubuntu is all about. This is what it is all about. And I think we ought to be looking at how we can then include these philosophies as we are discussing AI. You know, we need to be looking at the humanism philosophies, these philosophies that have actually not been taken seriously in a sense, on a global discourse level. Because we need to be looking at how we can include those in policy, in education, in AI, health care, because our needs in Africa are very different from the needs of the people in more developed countries.
Last question. What are you working on next?
What am I working on next? I am working on a book on trustworthy AI with my colleagues. So yesterday actually, we were looking at abstracts that we've received. The book is really just looking at AI governance and how this is panning out from a global South perspective. And so yeah, doing a lot of research around that and yeah, just trying to find collaborations around this area.
And then the other thing actually is, a colleague of mine and myself, we're putting together a women in AI in African sort of group to encourage female AI practitioners from Africa. Because this space is a very difficult space for women, you know, who are interested in research around AI. So we're putting together this particular group so that we can help women to, you know, attend conferences, write papers, have impactful research, and different kinds of exciting things. So I'm hoping that things are going to work out pretty well.
That sounds great. All right, Professor Wakunuma, thanks for being on the podcast. Thanks for being the first guest.
Well, I am honored.
Hopefully you'll be the first of many.
Yes, yes. Good luck with your podcast. I'm sure it's going to be a really exciting one.
Thank you.