"AI in Africa: 5 Issues That Must be Tackled for Digital Equality"

" AI in Africa: 5 Issues That Must be Tackled for Digital Equality \r\n\r\nIf it\u2019s steered correctly, artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to accelerate development. It can drive breakthroughs in agriculture. It can expand access to healthcare and education. It can boost financial inclusion and strengthen democratic participation.\r\n\r\nBut without deliberate action, the AI \u201crevolution\u201d risks deepening inequality more than it will expand opportunity.\r\n\r\nAs a\u00a0 scholar \u00a0of the\u00a0 history and future of AI , I\u2019ve written about the dangers of AI widening global inequality. There\u2019s an urgent need to develop governance mechanisms that will try to redistribute the benefits of this technology.\r\n\r\nThe scale of the AI gap is stark. Africa holds less than 1% of global\u00a0 data centre capacity . Data centres are the engines that drive AI. This means the continent has minimal infrastructure for hosting the computing power necessary to build and run AI models.\r\n\r\nWhile only 32 countries worldwide host specialised AI data centres, the US and China account for\u00a0 over 90% \u00a0of them.\r\n\r\nAnd only\u00a0 about 5% \u00a0of Africa\u2019s AI talent (innovators with AI skills) have sufficient access to the resources needed for advanced research and innovation.\r\n\r\nLeaders and policy-makers from around the world must grapple with an uncomfortable truth: AI is not equally distributed, and without deliberate action it will magnify global divides.\r\n\r\nBut they also still have the chance to set a new trajectory \u2013 one where Africa and the\u00a0 global majority \u00a0shape the rules of the game. One that ensures AI becomes a force for shared prosperity rather than exclusion.\r\n\r\nTo achieve this, five critical policy areas most be addressed. These are data; computing capacity; AI for local languages; skills and AI literacy; and AI safety, ethics and governance. These are not just African priorities; they\u2019re global imperatives.\r\n\r\n 1. Compute and infrastructure \r\n\r\nAccess to computational power has become the defining chokepoint in today\u2019s AI ecosystem. African researchers and innovators will remain on the margins of the AI economy unless there is investment in regional data centres, GPU clusters (a group of computers working together on large-scale AI processing) and secure cloud infrastructure.\r\n\r\nEurope, by contrast, has pooled\u00a0 over US$8 billion \u00a0in establishing the European High-Performance Computing Joint Undertaking to ensure the continent has computing capacity for local innovations.\r\n\r\nAfrican countries should\u00a0 press \u00a0for funding and partnerships to expand local capacity. They will also need to insist on transparency from global providers about who controls access, and ensure regional cooperation to pool resources across borders.\r\n\r\n 2. Data governance \r\n\r\nAI systems are only as good as the data they\u2019re trained on. Much of the continent\u2019s data is fragmented, poorly governed, or extracted without fairly compensating those it\u2019s collected from. Large, diverse and machine-readable datasets are used to teach AI models about the contexts and realities the data reflect.\r\n\r\nWhere ethical stewardship frameworks exist, locally managed datasets have already driven innovation that has impact. For example, the\u00a0 Lacuna Fund \u00a0has helped researchers across Africa build over 75 open-machine-learning datasets in areas like agriculture, health, climate and low-resource languages. These have filled critical data gaps, allowing for tools that better reflect African realities. Realities like high-accuracy crop yield datasets for farming. Or voice\/text resources for under-served languages.\r\n\r\nRobust national data protection and governance laws are needed. So are regional data commons, a shared resource where data is collected, stored, and made accessible to a community under common standards and governance. This would enable collaboration, reuse, and equitable benefits. Standards for quality, openness, interoperability and ethics developed by multilateral organisations must be designed with African priorities at their centre.\r\n\r\n 3. AI for local languages \r\n\r\nInclusive AI depends on the languages it speaks. Current large models overwhelmingly privilege English and other dominant languages. African languages are all but invisible in the digital sphere. This not only entrenches existing biases and inequalities, it also risks\u00a0 excluding millions \u00a0from access to AI-enabled services.\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nTake the example of the Cape Town-based non-profit organisation Gender Rights in Tech . It has developed a trauma-informed chatbot called\u00a0 Zuzi \u00a0that supports survivors of gender-based violence by providing anonymous, accessible guidance in diverse South African languages on their rights, available legal services, and sexual and reproductive health. It helps overcome stigma and bridge gaps in access. Zuzi demonstrates the\u00a0 power \u00a0of AI technologies in local languages.\r\n\r\nDedicated investment in datasets, benchmarks, and models for African languages is\u00a0 urgently needed , as well as in tools for speech recognition, text-to-speech, and literacy.\r\n\r\n 4. AI skills and literacy \r\n\r\nAfrican infrastructure and data will mean little without human capacity to use them. At present, AI skills supply falls far short of demand, and public understanding of AI\u2019s benefits and risks remains\u00a0 low .\r\n\r\nTo increase skills, AI and data science will need to be integrated into school and university curricula, and vocational training will need to be expanded. Supporting lifelong learning programmes is essential.\r\n\r\nPublic awareness campaigns can ensure citizens understand both the promise and perils of AI. This will support deeper public debate on these issues. It can also target support for women, rural communities, and African language speakers to help prevent new divides from forming.\r\n\r\n 5. Safety, ethics, and governance \r\n\r\nFinally, stronger governance frameworks are urgently needed. African countries face unique risks from AI. Among them are electoral interference, disinformation, job disruption, and environmental costs. These risks are shaped by Africa\u2019s structural realities: fragile information ecosystems, large informal labour markets, weak social safety nets, and resource-strained infrastructure. National strategies are emerging, but enforcement capacity and oversight remain limited.\r\n\r\nAfrican governments should push for the creation of an\u00a0 African AI safety institute . Safety and ethical audits must be mandated for high-risk systems. Regulations and AI governance instruments must be aligned with rights-based African principles that\u00a0 emphasise \u00a0equity, justice, transparency, and accountability. Participation in global standard-setting bodies is also crucial to ensure that\u00a0 African perspectives \u00a0help shape the rules being written elsewhere.\r\n\r\n All eyes on the G20 \r\n\r\nTaken together, these priorities are not defensive measures but a blueprint for empowerment. If pursued, they would reduce the risk of inequality. They would position Africa and other regions across the majority world to shape AI in ways that serve their people and economies.\r\n\r\nDigital and technology ministers from the world\u2019s biggest economies will be attending the G20\u2019s digital economy working group ministerial\u00a0 meeting \u00a0at the end of September.\r\n\r\nOn paper, it\u2019s a routine meeting. In practice, it may be the most consequential gathering on AI policy Africa has ever hosted.\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nThis is the first time the G20\u2019s digital ministers are meeting on African soil. It\u2019s happening at the very moment AI is being hailed as the technology that will redefine the global economy.\r\n\r\nThis meeting will not stand alone. It will be followed by the\u00a0 AI for Africa conference , co-hosted by South Africa\u2019s G20 presidency, Unesco and the African Union. Here the\u00a0 AI in Africa Initiative \u00a0will be launched. It is designed as a practical mechanism to carry forward the G20\u2019s commitments and advance implementation of the African Union\u2019s\u00a0 Continental AI Strategy .\r\n\r\nCape Town could mark a turning point: the moment when African leadership, working in concert with the G20, starts to close the AI divide and harness this technology for shared prosperity."

"AI in Africa: 5 Issues That Must be Tackled for Digital Equality"

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