This article is written by Seydina Moussa Ndiaye, Senior Lecturer, Cheikh Hamidou Kane Digital University (Senegal).

As part of the recently launched Government AI Campus, Apolitical is publishing a series of articles exploring AI adoption in government. These articles take on many forms, from op-eds written by academic experts to interviews with public sector leaders working on AI adoption themselves. See more by visiting the AI Campus.

  • The problem: The dazzling development of AI in recent years, coupled with increasingly widespread globalisation, is causing the world to rethink itself and international geopolitics to reshape, while Africa is still struggling to even consider playing a notable role in this global dynamic.
  • Why it matters: The recent history of the world over the last five centuries shows an Africa in decline, struggling to reinvent and rebuild itself despite the successive technological revolutions that have enabled other continents to develop and colonise Africa, to the point where most Africans have lost all confidence in their ability to participate in technological creation.
  • The solution: At a time when the major economic powers and even emerging countries are taking an interest in AI, its mastery, use and development to make it a driver for strengthening their economies and geostrategic positioning, African leaders need to be made aware, even shaken up, so that they can realise that the AI revolution is not just a technological revolution but rather a paradigm shift for the world and that Africa needs to be a player to take its destiny into its own hands, regain its sovereignty and reclaim an important place in the concert of nations.

The spectacular development of AI and its widespread use to accelerate progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and drive economic growth mean that mastering it is increasingly crucial for every country to ensure its technological, economic, social and political sovereignty. However, current trends in AI, notably with the development of generative AI as one of the most powerful approaches today, imply access to very massive data and huge computing capacities that most companies or even countries do not have. As a result, we are currently witnessing a bi-polarisation of AI power control between the USA and China and a virtual monopoly of generative AI power by American big-tech companies.

Against this backdrop, most countries have become aware of the need for a specific strategy to master AI technologies and are making considerable investments in this field to give themselves the means to exploit the full potential of AI, to enable their companies to benefit from the opportunities it offers, to take advantage of this technological revolution and to remain competitive in the global economy. At the same time, not all countries are in a position to make such investments. Indeed, the least technologically and economically advanced countries are very limited in terms of the financial efforts that can be devoted to AI development. However, despite this, more and more emerging and developing countries are drawing up their AI development strategies, given the importance of the subject and the stakes of this technology in today's world. But there is a real risk for most of these countries that these national strategies will remain on paper, given the fate that has befallen their previous science and technology strategies.

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The gap between developed and developing countries is widening as technology advances, and we're experiencing the same with AI. Worse still, the accelerating development of AI risks leaving those countries that have not made the effort to master this technology completely and definitively behind.

So, here we have, on the one hand, a group of countries that have become aware of this historic technological turning point that is shaking up global geopolitics and, on the other, countries that are witnessing major leaps in technology without really believing in their ability to excel in this field, despite the assets they might have. Moreover, this race for leadership in AI is based on the strengthening of three main pillars: computing power, talent and data. However, because of this international competition and the ever-growing needs around the world, these resources are becoming increasingly scarce. This global situation is leading the countries and major companies of the Global North to see the countries of the Global South as virgin territory where they can happily tap into two of the three key resources that everyone is looking for: talent and data.

The gap between developed and developing countries is widening as technology advances, and we're experiencing the same with AI.

Indeed, if we take Africa as an example, there is renewed interest in strengthening AI skills in several countries, with the help of major international structures. This is a real opportunity for these African countries, but the benefits are often untapped because, in the absence of a dynamic national ecosystem capable of absorbing these young talents, most of them are forced to move abroad to find an environment conducive to the blossoming of their talent. This is the case, for example, of the highly selective African Masters on Machine Intelligence1 (AMMI) created by Moustapha CISSE from Senegal, former Manager of Google AI Ghana, with the help of Google and Facebook, which has trained several hundred young Africans in Rwanda, Ghana and Senegal in recent years. Many of these young people join companies or laboratories outside Africa after their training, which is a significant loss of earnings for the African AI ecosystem.

When it comes to data, we have the same phenomenon. First of all, we have the fact that most software solutions used by young Africans, particularly those linked to social networks, continuously collect data on consumer habits, centres of interest and even personal data. Secondly, we have highly organised initiatives to collect sector-specific data on a large scale, particularly in highly sensitive sectors such as health, where data is difficult to obtain outside Africa. This type of initiative, such as the Lacuna Fund, enables African data to be fed into AI systems at the global level, which is beneficial overall for reducing bias. However, it is important to provide a framework for such initiatives to ensure that Africans are not robbed of their data. More importantly, African countries need to develop their own data governance policies to be able to exploit data and create value through AI systems. Africa is also identified in the AI value chain as a destination for data labelling, which shows that the continent can position itself in the AI economy. However, there are sometimes abuses in this context too, such as the scandals raised by Time magazine2 in Kenya, which revealed the exploitation of workers who were exposed to extreme content (sexual abuse, online hatred and violence) that can be traumatic for some, with very poor pay conditions (less than two US dollars an hour). This example, which is reminiscent of the excesses of colonisation3 in Africa, is a good illustration of the abuses that can occur in Africa when no regulatory framework is put in place to support the development of AI.

Ultimately, managing the two key resources necessary for the development of AI remains a major challenge in Africa. To prevent them from being exploited by external entities, political decision-makers need to be made aware of their importance and the urgent need for real public policies. Beyond the exploitation of African talent and data, the meteoric development of AI is reinforcing the technological gap between the Global North and the Global South. In Africa, this gap is more worrying because most political decision-makers do not understand the technology and often do not seem convinced of the need to make it a priority or to encourage the endogenous development of the technology. This is one of the effects of the technological colonisation that Africa has been undergoing for several decades, which is reflected in the loss of initiative in moving from strategy to reality in most African countries when it comes to technological innovation.

To solve this problem of AI colonisation, the primary response should be raising awareness among key African political decision-makers. My observation is that most of the leaders of these various countries are not really aware of the real opportunities AI offers their country. So, we need to get them acculturated to AI, to really convince them of the interest and the need for each African country to embrace the technology and put in place concrete actions to master it throughout its value chain. The big bottleneck can be found at the highest level of public authority because certain strategic decisions can only be taken at that level, and all the other levers will depend on it.

Another lever that needs to be activated is setting up and boosting a local AI ecosystem. Indeed, the endogenous development of AI cannot be achieved without the existence of such an ecosystem bringing together academics, businesses and public authorities. For such ecosystems to exist in Africa and be effective, the barriers between these different players must be removed by uniting them in projects of common interest, preferably financed by the state rather than external financial partners. Public procurement could be an important instrument for establishing such ecosystems.

In conclusion, the current trajectory of AI development highlights the urgent need for proactive strategies and robust governance frameworks, particularly in regions facing technological disparities such as Africa. African countries risk sinking into the complexities of AI colonisation if no concrete action is taken to appropriate this technology endogenously and harness its transformative potential. Raising awareness among political leaders and promoting local innovation ecosystems are imperative steps. By prioritising inclusive development, promoting responsible AI governance, developing a local AI economy and strengthening local talent, African countries can pave the way towards a more equitable and sustainable AI future. This ensures that the benefits of this transformative technology are shared by all while avoiding exploitation.

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