Kathy Gibson reports from the AI Everything Summit in Nairobi – Africa is enjoying a renaissance as it embraces technology and artificial intelligence (AI) to drive its future growth. But there is a danger that the continent will remain a mere consumer of the technology without using it to fundamentally change its economy.
The continent should view AI in a different way, says Dr Monica Musenero Masanza, minister of science, technology an innovation, Uganda.
“AI started off as part of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR), but now it has swallowed all the others.”
She points out that 4IR is actually an economic revolution that defines how countries do business, and how they grow.
“But we received AI as a technology – and we are investing in it as a technology,” she says. “We have not yet actively positioned it as the new platform for economic transformation.
“If we can’t connect the knowledge to economic drivers, and shift the way people live and the technologies they have access to, then we focus on the technology in isolation while the rest of the economy is running with other energies.
“And if we do that, the technology lacks the engine and fuel to take the economy further.”
What’s needed, Dr Masanza says, is a fundamental shift in how we view AI, and to shift the focus from AI as a tool to AI as an economic driver.
“This is the first industrial revolution that Africa is participating in. And it is the first time we can own it.”
The first thing to understand is that AI is going to shift everything, she adds. “To become the owner of wealth we need to understand the fundamental question: where is the money?
“Don’t think just about the technology; think about the money, and who is getting the money.
“Our goal must be to tip the global balance so that money flows into Africa.”
This is a vital point, Dr Masanza says. Today, just 1% of the global wealth in AI is retained in Africa. “Yes, we have a lot of activity – but we are not retaining the AI economy.”
The continent must also mature quickly as AI develops, and ensure that we are harnessing the technology to grow the economy.
Dr Masanza cites the example of the automotive industry: the first car was sold in Uganda in 1904, but it is only in recent years that the country has been able to make any money from making a car.
Shifting the economy isn’t an easy prospect, but Dr Masanza says an important first step is to ensure that the people who determine the economic policies are AI literate and are part of the conversation.
These players include finance ministers and central bank leaders, who need to start seeing AI as a new economic driver.
“And we need to completely retrain ourselves – even those of us who are already qualified.”
An important step will be to develop new economic metrics to measure the efficacy of AI.
“We have a narrative that AI will automatically shift us,” Dr Masanza points out. “But how can you determine if it makes that farmer wealthy?
“We must develop metrics within the African context, not the same metrics that are employed in the rest of the world. Because we need to know if AI is building our economies, or if it is frittering away our wealth.”
As an immediate call to action, Dr Masanza recommends dialogue with all stakeholders. “We cannot delegate thinking in the era of AI.”
Her department is setting up a think tank that aims to develop the metrics that will allow us to monitor potential economies.
“And we must reach the people who determine the economic policies, and get them on board,” she says. “They have to be part and parcel of these discussions.”