Using AI to solve everyday challenges in Africa

I have always been fascinated by technology and, in particular, machine learning and artificial intelligence.

From the early days in my career in business intelligence and analytics at Kenya Airways, to now leading technical teams at Kenyan Wallstreet and MediaPal, I have always explored how we can use data analytics, machine learning and automation to solve business problems in aviation, media and advertising.

The growing community of artificial intelligence developers on the African continent and especially Nairobi has further exposed me to like-minded thinkers who are constantly asking themselves the same question: How do we use AI to solve everyday challenges that face the continent like traffic congestion, low literacy levels, fake news, speech recognition of native languages and so on.

It was therefore a very eye-opening experience to explore the subject of artificial intelligence and specifically ethical AI with Caroline Gorski, the Global Director at R2 Data Labs at Rolls-Royce.

I wanted to understand how AI can be applied to solve problems in countries across Africa and what we as a continent need to do to ensure we are part of the 4th industrial revolution. I was especially amazed to learn of the breakthroughs made by Rolls-Royce around ethical AI and how they are sharing [link] their framework and learnings with other organisations.

We also explored the work being done by UNESCO to develop a framework to govern ethical use of AI that is due for release and publication sometime in 2021.

Caroline drew my attention to various organisations like the Emergent Alliance, an organisation that she also chairs, that are working with governments and private companies to help countries recover from the Covid-19 pandemic.

She rallied more companies, start-ups, governments and academia alike across Africa to join existing organisations or form collaborative organisations to share their AI research and develop a unified framework that serves the unique needs of the continent.

We also explored the laudable AI-led initiatives that have been developed by various countries across the globe to combat Covid-19, including the use of humanoid robots in coronavirus treatment centres in Rwanda to minimise human interaction.

I thoroughly enjoyed our discussions, and I hope you will enjoy them as well. Listen to our five-part podcast series.