![] Africa is significantly falling behind in the global AI maturity index.](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/P1adt7l7FUGu8uogsBpA-aJ9NxhTF_Bosg5LYc_bQ14Er4z7nn76Xu6PZyeBp-_QhGceNJzjb4cS-u41ULymS5Be3rvjaVf9VNSk)
As the use of artificial intelligent (AI) increasingly influences social, economic and political norms, the quest to attain AI sovereignty is giving African governments sleepless nights.
This was the word from Dr Mark Nasila, author and chief data and analytics officer: Chief Risk Office at First National Bank South Africa, speaking at the SingularityU South Africa Summit 2024, in Johannesburg, this week.
As governments move to govern AI technologies in efforts to mitigate potential risks, they face the dilemma of AI’s potential to exacerbate existing inequalities, according to Dr Nasila.
Delivering a keynote presentation, titled: “Africa's Al sovereignty: Unleashing the potential for home-grown innovation and self-reliance”, Nasila warned that Africa significantly lags behind counterparts in the global AI maturity index.
While harnessing the power of AI opens infinite economic opportunities for countries around the world, there is a disproportionate amount of success that will be gained by nations that are strategically investing in AI technologies, he explained.
Referencing a PwC report, Nasila noted AI could contribute up to $15.7 trillion to the global economy by 2030. However, North America and China will see the largest (70%) GDP gains derived from AI.
This uneven distribution of success is causing African governments to be concerned about using AI to its full potential to gain efficiency, while balancing it with sovereignty, data security, transparency and ethical use.
“But governments are not just worried about gaining value from AI, they are more worried about national security, because AI itself is being used to perform some of the complex cyber threats, and they acknowledge they need to use AI as a defence mechanism.
“They are worried about economic competitiveness because AI is driving the future of economies and industries. They are worried about its ability to solve social problems. They are worried about global influence and using AI to make discoveries that will help organisations keep up with requirements of the future. They are worried about maturing regulations and governance. They are worried about being able to contribute to international cooperation. But most importantly, they are worried about data sovereignty.”
As AI sovereignty heralds a new era in scientific evolution, African governments are grappling with using data in an ethical manner that will enable AI models to continuously learn and become advanced, he explained.
AI sovereignty – the nation’s control over AI technologies and associated data – can play a role in reducing dependency on foreign entities, while improving the ability to securely manage the country’s digital assets.
“Nations are not just looking at data as data; they are looking at the value chain because there is much more economic value that nations could realise, in line with meeting national priorities in the AI value chain. But there is a need to make sure data remains protected.”
He referenced the manufacturing sector as a good example of an industry where AI is poised to become a transformative technology, and contribute significantly towards countries’ value chain.
Nasila called on governments to not undermine the role of smart manufacturing, which enables improved data insights and production efficiency, and drives the development of intelligent products.
“Africa is not looking good in AI maturity. When you look at the map of AI preparedness across the globe, Africa is significantly falling behind. The top nine countries in AI maturity are the highest manufacturing countries in the world, and they are focusing on establishing factories that will produce products and services of the future. So, we're talking about manufacturing intelligence that would help contribute to the global economy.”
Emad Mostaque, founder of Stability AI and CEO of Schelling AI, an open source decentralised AI platform, also delivered a keynote presentation advocating decentralised AI.
He believes it holds the promise of unlocking new frontiers of human potential and ushers in a more equitable and empowered global society.
“AI empowers individuals and nations alike, to ensure equitable access. AI allows us to do more things, as everyone has access to an army of really intelligent graduates at their fingertips,” commented Mostaque.
“The exponential growth of AI adoption globally is outpacing the adoption of both computers and the internet. This isn't something we thought would happen quite so quickly; even those of us in the industry, running these big computers.”
Mostaque shared his experience in building a powerful supercomputer using open source communities. He warned against the dangers of “black-box models” controlled by a few entities.
"This technology [AI] should be open and free. We cannot afford to have technology that drives our living and supports our living, controlled by a few. We have to decentralise it. We have to open it up.”
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