ChatGPT is heating up the struggle for sovereignty in the field of artificial intelligence. While there is much speculation about how OpenAI-Microsoft, Alphabet and Facebook will now divide the world between themselves, many researchers in Africa are pushing for their own development. Africa must not become a “dump” of a technology dominated by the Global North and its values. In the local race to catch up, they also rely on “grassroots AI”.
National AI programs are booming on the African continent. Egypt, Mauritius and Rwanda were the first on the continent to adopt national AI strategies. South Africa, Tunisia, Uganda, Kenya and Nigeria have each presented their own instruments for promoting machine learning and data policies. Commissions or task forces are at work almost everywhere. Consultations on overall AI strategies are currently underway in Nigeria and Tunisia.
Even more AI strategies
But these are by no means all countries that have taken up the cause of the issue, explains Tshilidzi Marwala, Vice Chancellor of the University of Johannesburg, to heise online. There’s Zambia and Botswana, which are among the pioneers, says Marwala; and Benin has am January 19 a program for 7 million euros established for five years.
Not even the AI policy barometer of the Organization for Economic Cooperation can keep up with documenting the ever new AI strategies. Marwala, who will take over the management of the United Nations University from March, has known the scene for many years. He is not only chairman of the South African working group “Fourth Industrial Revolution”, but also belonged to a corresponding task force in Namibia. This also completed its preparatory work last year and invited interested parties to a conference on the next steps.
African data politics, African data markets
In addition to the race for national initiatives, principles and programs, there are also efforts to develop AI policy regionally. Last September, the UNESCO Southern Africa sub-Regional Forum on Artificial Intelligence (SARFAI) approved a list of Recommendations for dealing with AI on the continent. SARFAI includes Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe. In terms of AI, the recommendations include privacy and data localization considerations as well as suggestions on how pan-African data sets could be built more quickly.
Data use and sovereignty are also on the agenda of the somewhat older Smart Africa Alliance, which has so far mainly taken care of an African backbone and cross-border networks. The 30-strong alliance is also supported by the federal government and is intended to promote local data markets under the motto data4africa and FAIR Forward.
AI strategy for the whole continent
The African Union (AU), in which all African countries are represented, is also working on a big boost. At the end of the first quarter of 2023, the AU will present its “AI Continental Strategy”, says Marwala. Agreement has already been reached on five central pillars. These include an education revolution, a policy that reconciles innovation and ethics, an open data policy for Africa, a boost in investment for local AI centers and, last but not least, the creation of the necessary infrastructure as a basis. Networks and computing power are not available everywhere.
What is missing: In the fast-paced world of technology, there is often the time to re-sort all the news and background information. At the weekend we want to take it, follow the side paths away from the current, try different perspectives and make nuances audible.
It is still unclear to what extent such a continental strategy for AI from the middle of the year can pull countries that have not yet had their own national strategies with them. What is clear from all the political agreements and papers is the sense of urgency that exists in at least some of the continent’s capitals and universities.
