Technology holds key to Africa growth

With artificial intelligence (AI) continuing to make inroads in all sectors of the world economy, new jobs being created due to AI’s advancement, will today come under the spotlight when Singularity University (SU) South Africa co-chief executive officer Mic Mann leads a discussion on accessing the global economy.

The two-day SU South Africa Summit 2019 being held at the Kyalami International Convention Centre has drawn experts from South Africa, United States, Copenhagen, Denmark, Holland and other countries, who have been presenting latest trends, scenarios and opportunities arising from the advent of AI.

In the world of work, jobs of the future which are based on technology, will make it easier for people to work from home for local and foreign companies, using a cellphone application.

Addressing a hall packed with delegates, experts yesterday called on people to embrace the advancement in technology, which included robotics, they said were bound to increase levels of efficiency and create opportunities.

South African computer scientist who started Google locally, Stafford Masie said: “If you hear AI taking over jobs, it won’t be because of AI but because of lack of human imagination. Human beings waste time.”

Said Alix Rübsaam, researcher in philosophy of technology, cultural analysis and posthumanism at the University of Amsterdam: “We cannot take AI at face value without understanding the cultural context. AI is shaped by a specific time and place, with its contextual, based on the most important technology of the time.

“Today we talk about downloading our cognition digitally, downloading the human brain. Everything alive has a certain electrical charge and this influences what artificial life looks like. It’s how we predict the world around us.”

Africa, according to former Microsoft executive and energy cochair of Singularity University, Ramez Naam, was “the least connected continent on earth”.

He explained: “But that also means that Africa has the greatest opportunity for new connections. The continent’s mobile internet connectivity rates have doubled within four years.

“By 2025, two thirds of Africans will be connected to the internet using smartphones and data will quadruple. The value of all this is additional productivity.

“This connection will give people the opportunity to do things they couldn’t do before. Africa’s answer lies in adaptive AI algorithms and personalisation.”

He said these advances will hold societal benefits, from healthcare to agriculture and education.