Africa and The Collaborative Growth of AI Building and Development
William Jackson, MAT CEO MetaverseWP – Metaverse Education
Program Director for World Metaverse Council
Technology conferences are expanding across Africa, this is a
time for learning, collaboration, transformative opportunities for
African access to business resources, entrepreneurial opportunities,
content creation and applying AI for development.
The digital ecosystems across Africa are adapting to the enormous
growth potentials of influence and innovation. Africa, creating its
own technological innovation, and implementation of Blockchain
incorporation, application of new technologies that empower
Africans to business owners, create economic streams of income
across the continent.
If Africa is to grow stronger, she must be able to work together
collaboratively across borders and boundaries. Not to cheat each
other and try to overcome each other.
AI’s, ChatGPT, PI.ai, and any other AI platforms are leveling the
playing fields for Africans to empower their voices, increase
collaboration on digital platforms, build digital businesses.
The United Nations is recognizing the growth of Africa as a
serious player in digital and is fearful of Africa’s growth.
That growth will build Africa to a “Superpower” not with
weapons, but with knowledge.
The objectives should include the new levels of entrepreneurs
with youth, teens, and young adults. There should be collaborations
across Africa to build historic partnerships to build new small
and medium businesses that create not just wealth but establish
financial stability. Generative AI is changing how Africans are thinking,
helping business owners adapt their thinking in this age of AI brings
alliances in markets never accessible before. Just as the African Union
is deciding on allowing border crossings without Visa’s, the
influence of job creation, economic growth, educational equality brings
new growth and development opportunities. Africans are learning
to understand the process of AI and how human knowledge,
intelligence, and comprehension can be applied to the data elements
of AI.
No other technologies in the past 100 years have benefited Africa
than AI – Artificial Intelligences because of the opportunity to think on
higher levels of degree. To be able to compete with larger industries
and collaborate with an international presence. Do not think like the
colonizers, but think like the colonizers to build and help raise Africa.
Stated by Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee, 2018 “For more
than 250 years the fundamental drivers of economic growth have
been technological innovations. The most important of these are
what economists call general-purpose technologies, a category that
includes the steam engine, electricity, and the internal combustion
engine.
The most important general-purpose technology of our era is
Artificial Intelligence, particularly machine learning.”
It is important to understand as well that Africans must decide to be
educated, inspired and active. Technologies are made by man,
inspired by solving problems and are scaled to meet the challenges
and needs of the future. Society cannot continue to run from human
social issues, there needs to be international collaborations to think
how to solve problems and not just throw away and waste money.
Artificial Intelligence is inspiring educational and business entities
to adapt, collaborate, and pivot their abilities to create dynamic content. Content will always be important and engaging when applied correctly and comprehensively. Technology is a way to build community, build collaborations that open new doors for commerce.
AI can do phenomenal things, but it must acknowledge the human
personality is key, human incites, emotions, innovation and creativity must come first. A human condition of growth is vital to be sure that human and civic engagement is not lost in algorithms, data sets and digital environments.
I’ve found that AI can be very useful for brainstorming, guiding creation in writing and moving the mind forward in creativity and even innovative design. In this age of digital collaborations and cooperation the most important aspect is to make sure the mind is in control not the machine.
Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of UNESCO, states that, “promoting AI in Africa is a top priority for the organization (UNESCO).” “Artificial intelligence can help advance more rapidly towards the achievement of the SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) by allowing better risk assessment,
enabling more accurate forecasting and faster. knowledge sharing, by
offering innovative solutions in the fields of education, health, ecology, urbanism, and the creative industries and by improving standards of
living and our daily well-being.”
The world is progressing, currently most AI development can be
seen in North America, Europe and Asia; Africa is a fertile ground of
digital discovery, creativity and innovation. It is time for Africa to have
their own microchip centers, data centers to store African data.
Technological evolution and educational modifications need to be
in place so increasing African innovators and those with phenomenal imagination can apply their dreams and use AI to move Africa forward.
Seen on the web site MetaverseWP https://metaversewp.com/destination
the grow of digital environments and opportunities that have grown since 2022.
The African continent has the youngest and fastest growing population
on earth, Africa is a sleeping giant waking up and ready to embrace a magnificent future of digital awakening. Financial resources will become available from investors, but the investing must be from Africans.
Companies like My Quest To Teach and MetaverseWP are addressing accessibility by sponsoring students and teachers to attend conferences
for free. Since 2017 they have sponsored and provided scholarships for over 500 youth, teens and young adults to attend technology conferences, to be empowered, inspired and educated.
Google opened its first African AI research laboratory in Accra, Ghana, to address the many economic, political and environmental challenges.
“Africa has many challenges where the use of Artificial Intelligence can be beneficial, sometimes even more than in other places,” said Moustapha
Cisse, Google’s head of AI in Accra.
William Jackson, CEO of MetaverseWP has stated, “in order for Africa to
make significant influences and strides across Africa in the fields of technology, Africans must financially be able to invest in their personal communities. Not falling into the danger of just foreign investments that
can create another season of colonization and economic domination.”
As Africans become increasingly connected, access to investment by
Africans are key to continued freedoms and continental growth. Given
the importance of technology in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda
for Sustainable Development, experts like William Jackson, believe African states will soon begin to invest in the development and application of
AI for the betterment of Africa across the continent.
In the words of Chinua Achebe when related to the future story of Africa
and its engagement with AI and other technologies, “Until the Lions
(Africans) have their own historians, the history of the hunt will glorify
the hunters (foreign nations).” Africa needs to continue to grow its own
Lions to grow into hunters of technology, developers, creatives,
visionaries, artists, educators, business owners and entrepreneurs.
