AI and the Global Chessboard: Policy, Power, and the Quest for Digital Checkmate | FutureSight Africa™ with Buntu Majaja | S1E4 (A snippet)
Charting Africa's Digital Future In between Global AI Dominance: Challenges, Opportunities, and the Ethics of Autonomy. What does it and will it mean?
A summary episode connecting the dots from previous content.
Investigates AI's influence on Africa's labour market and literacy.
Highlights global AI strategies and their geopolitical implications.
Africa stands on the edge of a digital revolution, her heart filled with hope, her path strewn with challenges. This mighty continent, rich with history and culture, often finds herself perceived as a whisper of the past, often perceived as a time capsule from the times of Hiroshima and Nagasaki… or the German Blitzkrieg. Equally, Africa grapples with questions of evolution and survival. As more people migrate their lives online, Africa stands on the brink of a digital transformation. Yet, low literacy rates and a young, economically dependent population pose significant hurdles.
In Episode 2 of FutureSight Africa, we discuss the evolution of literacy in this digital age. The African Union's Digital Transformation Strategy for Africa (2020-2030) aims to bridge the digital divide. But it's not straightforward. Current digital skills in Africa remain skewed towards basic tasks - a tiny fraction possess intermediate skills, and even fewer advanced skills. As AI begins to dominate these tasks, the future of Africa's digital transformation becomes uncertain.
National AI strategies worldwide reflect a race to secure future dominance. Countries across the globe, including global powerhouses like the US and China, are investing massively in AI. The US's Endless Frontier Act and China's AI pilot zones symbolise this competition. Smaller… yet still nations are not far behind, with countries like Iceland, Saudi Arabia, and our African sister Kenya developing their national AI strategies.
In Episode 3 of FutureSight Africa, we peered into the preparation and the world of learning. The trends are increasingly showing that more people are choosing to study AI. Yet, in Africa, schools aren't offering enough courses in subjects like machine learning or data science. This situation differs from other parts of the world, where universities focusing on AI are popping up.
Big tech companies like Google and Microsoft are even hiring teachers from universities to apply their knowledge in the industry. This push has led to an 11% increase in AI-related jobs in just one year. With AI's growth, we see interesting changes in creative fields too. For example, an AI system in Switzerland published around 40,000 news articles in a matter of weeks in 2018, outpacing all the journalists combined. Even performances are changing - one billion people watched AI-created TV shows in China in 2021.
But this race isn't without its concerns, like when people are tricked into thinking they're talking to someone they know through AI voice manipulation, and they end up being victims of new hyper-real scams. At a national level, there is a real concern for a loss of sovereignty, leading to protective policies around AI and related technologies. For instance, Germany now scrutinises non-EU investments in AI, while the UK limits foreign ownership of tech companies. These technologies are simply that powerful. They can also be deadly.
Military use of AI, which is the subject of Episode 5 of FutureSight Africa (to be published next week), emerges as a new concern in this global race. Lethal AI that is given the capability to take a human life, if it decides so, will be a huge turning point. A machine autonomously deciding to kill while on the battlefield will change conflict forever, and the trends suggest that we are accelerating into this future.
The questions of AI's ethical use and regulations around 'deep fakes' also loom large, with potential legal repercussions for their creation. “The pen is mightier than the sword” – In other words if you control what people believe and you can win wars. And AI is the best pen we have ever invented. The future of society with AI has geopolitical implications that the world is just beginning to grapple with.
These insights only scrape the surface of the ongoing discussions on AI's future impact. For more in-depth analysis, check out the full editions of FutureSight Africa here.