AI for better weather forecasts; only 5% of AI researchers have compute
Africa AI News weekly digest...
Good morning
And welcome to the second issue of Africa AI News – Weekly News Digest.
We’re already over a hundred subscribers, and adding more every day. Published in partnership with Middle East AI News, we provide a snapshot of key news, trends and insights into the use of AI technology in Africa.
We’d love you to pass it on to anyone you know in the field so that we can grow our subscriber base — and our sources for great stories. If you know of something cool, interesting, fun or downright scary about AI in Africa, just reply to this email. It would be great to hear from you.
On with this week’s issue!
/Roger
Applications
Can AI improve weather forecasting in Africa?
#Africa #climate - Existing models for weather forecasting are not working very well, are slow, and hampered by a crying shortage of accurate, live weather data. Startup AfricaClimate AI thinks new AI-based modelling can do a better job, faster with less information. (The Africa Report)
Yaiku community turns to AI to save their dying language
#Kenya #language - An app to capture spoken word and oral traditions is combined with AI back end to preserve the Yaakunte language. (Kenya News)
Malawian researchers use AI to identify measles lesions
#Malawi #healthcare - Using images of skin lesions, data sets of medical images and AI allows medics to identify if a patient has measles instantly. Measles is still one of Malawi’s great killer diseases. (E+Z Germany)
LLMs
Kaduna launches AI for Hausa speakers initiative
#Nigeria #LLMs #Hausa - The Kaduna state government has launched the AI4ALL initiative to make AI accessible to Hausa speakers in Nigeria, with the aim to turn Kaduna into an ICT hub. It will include short lessons on AI in Hausa, downloadable from the NITDA site. (The Cable)
Google extends natural language support to 15 more African languages
#Africa #language - Giving 300 million more Africans a way to interact with technology through natural language, extensive training of AI language models has extended Google Translate to 15 more languages. (Slator)
Competitions
Beltone Holding’s AI hackathon draws 450 submissions
#Egypt #fintech - Financial services company Beltone Holding concluded its first AI hackathon with 450 submissions from 30 teams. Held in collaboration with the Mathematics, Actuarial, and Data Science Association at the American University in Cairo, the event fostered AI-driven financial solutions by local developers. (Zawya)
Hack4Dev readies for 14 regional data science hackathons in 2025
#Africa #hakathon - Running from February to April 2025, organisers are calling for participants, who will tackle a cutting-edge challenge: developing a machine learning pipeline for CubeSats (small satellites used in space research). Collaborate with peers, compete against regional teams from around the globe, with access to the ilifu cloud computing system. (Hack4Dev)
Digital Transformation
Only 5% of African AI entrepreneurs have enough compute
#Africa #digitaltransformation - African tech startups met with UNDP and G7 leaders beside the launch of the AI Hub for Sustainable Development, talking about compute resources – and how to get them into the hands of African AI innovators. Only 5% of Africa's trained AI talent can afford to access powerful GPUs. Meaning, no matter how many Africans are trained or how much data is gathered, the compute roadblock remains. (UNDP blog)
AI works wonders for journalism, opens door for government spooks
#Africa #journalism - The African Investigative Journalism Conference and code4africa say while AI gives investigative journalists amazing new tools, it also opens cracks for shadowy international “intelligence for hire” companies hired by repressive governments and powerful corporations (Medium)
CoEs
AI Challenge fund creates UK/Kenya CoE
#Kenya #CoE - A joint UK-Kenyan fund has been created to build Kenya's AI ecosystem with the AI Challenge Fund, led by the African Centre for Technology Studies (ACTS). The fund will support projects targeting critical sectors such as healthcare, agriculture, education and public service delivery. (CIO Africa)
Government departments join Digital Ethiopia 2025 CoE
#Ethiopia #CoE - Five government departments get involved in Digital Ethiopia. Driven by the Ethiopian Artificial Intelligence Institute, it sees the Information Network Security Administration (INSA), National ID Program, Addis Ababa Civil Registration and Residency Service Agency and the Addis Ababa Innovation and Technology Development Bureau join up. (Ethiopian Herald)
Education
Call for Papers open for 2025 AfriCHI conference
#Africa #education - Papers are invited for the 5th African Human Computer Interaction Conference (AfriCHI 2025) in November 2025, in Cairo, to showcase African contributions from practical applications to theoretical insights. (Call for papers)
UM6P takes lead in deploying new AI tool
#Morocco #education - Mohammed VI Polytechnic University (UM6P) in Morocco has become the first university in Africa to announce the implementation of an AI-powered learning system, ChatGPT Edu. ChatGPT Edu was introduced by OpenAI in May to support universities. (University World News)
Deadline Extended to 18 Nov for Hundzula NLP Linguistics Retreat
#SouthAfrica #SADC #education - This event for scholars in the African natural language processing field will be held at the University of Johannesburg, hosted by Data Science for Social Impact (DSFSI) of the University of Pretoria) (Apply here)
TechLabs is looking for volunteers to help set up in South Africa
#SouthAfrica #education - Global community TechLabs is dedicated to providing free digital skills education for young people. Learning programs include Data Science, Deep Learning, Web Development and User Experience Design. It has locations in Northern Europe, and looking to spread to Africa. Apply here. (Machine Learning and Data Science Africa Network)
Ugandan trainees off to China to learn about AI
#Uganda #education - A group of Ugandan students have been selected to travel to Shenzhen, China for training, funded by Huawei's LEAP Digital Training Programme. (Nile Post)
UNESCO and Infinix launch AI & robotics teacher training
#Nigeria #education - Nigerian teachers will be given training under a programme delivered by UNESCO, with resourcing from smartphone company Infinix. Aimed at giving teachers exposure to new tech, it is intended to drive interest in STEM by school learners. (The Guardian Nigeria)
Microsoft Launches AI Skilling Initiative In Kenya
#Kenya #education - Microsoft has announced the launch of a new skilling initiative in Kenya aimed at training one million people in AI and cybersecurity by 2027. It is part of Microsoft’s Africa-wide skills initiative, aligned with Kenya’s Vision 2030 and Digital Masterplan. (CIO Africa)
AI Policy
Deputy speaker calls for Ugandan AI regulation
#Uganda #policy - Deputy Speaker in Uganda's parliament Thomas Tayebwa has renewed his call for regulation of AI, citing its potential threats to society. The UCC (Uganda Communications Commission) formed an AI task force in July to develop a framework for integrating AI into the communications industry. (Monitor)
So many challenges, so many possibilities - Deep Learning Indaba 2024
#Africa #policy - Lack of coherent (or often any) policy by African governments, scant resources and distortions created by self interest of global tech giants hamstring African AI players, says a new in-depth analysis by MIT Tech Review was published last week of the Deep Learning Indaba held in Dakar, Senegal, in September. (MIT Technology Review)
Tunisia soon to announce new national AI strategy
#Tunisia #AIpolicy - Tunisia will announce a new digital and AI strategy to replace the 2021-2025 strategy, aiming to advance digitisation, promote open data and integrate AI into key sectors, such as health, education, environment, and transport. (Wearetech)
Regulate AI use, not tech, says Google
#Africa #policy - This week saw the Africa Tech Festival in Cape Town, where panel discussions saw every AI topic under the sun discussed. Heavily dominated by tech multinations, the contentious topic of regulation came up. Google sub-Saharan Africa policy wonk, Charles Murito, argued that the tech should be left alone to develop, but government should be regulating its applications. (Connecting Africa)
Data Centres
Teraco to build AI-tastic data centre with sun-power
#SouthAfrica #datacentre - South African datacenter operator Teraco has raised $442-million for a new datacenter at its Isando facility in Johannesburg aimed at generative AI workloads, with 120MW of solar power to come from a new plant under construction. (FDI Insider)
Nigeria’s Open Access Data Centres to host Reflex AI compute
#Nigeria #compute - Open Access Data Centres (part of WIOCC) in Nigerian is getting ready to open the Open Access Fabric (OAFabric) in January next year, a set of telecoms-oriented services. It will host South African managed service provider, Reflex, platform for data science compute. (Developing Telecoms)
Nokia and Gijima to build out on-prem AI systems
#SouhtAfrica #datacentres - Tech titan Nokia and South African IT services company Gijima have got into bed to build “AI-ready campus solutions” (the announcement was pretty cryptic) for business in South Africa. (TechAfrica News)
[ This newsletter was human edited and AI enhanced]