Africa’s AI imperative
The revolution is underway, inexorable, of civilisational magnitude. Even more so than the industrial revolution that transformed the economies and societies of the 19th century. AI, artificial intelligence, the supremely gifted offspring of the World Wide Web, the technological prehistory of which we are now experiencing, will have a major impact on the way we live and work in society. Today, the tool is imperfect and hesitant. Nuances and culture escape it. But the technology is advancing. And, in quantitative and analytical terms, it is already very powerful.
AI will transform the global economy, disrupt the labour market and business processes. It will transform communications, translations and interaction between humans. It will transform agriculture by providing precision farming analyses down to the last millimetre (soil, climate, inputs, value chains, etc.), and transform the paradigms of medicine with a capacity for data management that is beyond human reach. It will impact issues of national sovereignty and politics, and it will change (as it is already doing) the way we wage war and conduct espionage.
AI will rule this emerging world... The risks are well known and existential: misinformation, manipulation, discrimination, loss of human control with automated processes... An uncontrolled future is entirely possible, one that may resemble a frightening mix of Big Brother and Terminator.
The worst-case scenario is not a given, and mastery of the tool is likely. But the world of AI risks being, above all, a world of even greater inequality. Inequality within each nation, between those with the capacity to use it and benefit from it, and those without. And above all, inequality between nations. AI requires phenomenal resources in terms of computing power, storage space and energy. It also requires funding on a scale of billions of dollars.
According to a University of Oxford study, only around 30 countries host the mega data centres that form the architecture of the famed Cloud, essential for the development of AI. The United States and China are streaks ahead of other countries. And almost the only manufacturers of the superchips needed to run the machine. Europe does have some valuable advantages, however: electricity production, digital networks and skills. The Gulf countries are trying to make their mark by investing tens of billions of dollars. Latin America and, above all, Africa are lagging way behind...
In his best-selling book Homo Deus (2015), Yuval Noah Harari warns us that the digital revolution and the rise of AI will not follow the same pattern as the 19th-century industrial revolution: ‘21st-century technologies could create a permanent divide between technological superpowers and the rest of the world.’
It is crucial that Africa takes into account the impact of AI. Today, with its 54 countries and 1.4 billion people, the continent, accounts for less than 1% of global data centre capacity. And while we use a multitude of apps every day that can transform our daily lives, AI does not have the magical power to solve all development issues. Certainly, large first world companies are developing capacities in South Africa, Côte d'Ivoire, Kenya, Ghana, Morocco, and elsewhere. But we are terribly dependent and lacking in the resources financing, energy, etc. – to join this race and avoid being mere small customers permanently relegated to the second tier of the world to come. David Solomon, CEO of Goldman Sachs, illustrates the challenge: "AI can do 95% of the work in a few minutes... The remaining 5% is now what counts, because everything else has become a commodity."
We must mobilise resources to be a significant player in the 95%, to ensure we have the capacity to store the commodity. But above all, we must be able to use the tool, train our young people and develop our own applications. To be part of the 5%.