Orange adds African LLMs; Law firms raise AI regs alarm
Africa AI News weekly digest...
Good morning, and welcome to the fourth issue of Africa AI News – Weekly News Digest.
Top stories this week include our view on the hugely-needed initiative by Orange (Telecoms) to work with African AI companies to fine-tune some of the bigger AI models to work with local languages.
AfricaAINews also published an analysis of the changing position of global tech giants on the regulation of AI … should it be done, and where? At the source of the tech? At the application of the tech? At all?
And for lighter reading, some pretty cool new applications of the tech.
Let us know if you have any news you’d like to share, or your views on major AI stories affecting Africa and its people. Just reply to this email.
On with this week’s issue!
/Roger
LLMs
Orange to add African languages to global LLMs
#Africa #LLMs - Global telecom group Orange is working with OpenAI and Meta to incorporate African regional languages into large language models (LLMs). Orange will fine-tune OpenAI’s open-source speech models and Meta’s openly available Llama 3.1 model to support regional African languages. (Africa AI News)
R&D
Africa needs tech infrastructure, not Cloud
#Botswana #R&D #infrastructure - Voices are getting louder calling for more investment in infrastructure to allow faster R&D efforts in Africa, with a number of speakers calling for focus on building tin at the 2024 African Economic Conference (AEC) in Gaborone. (African Development Bank Group)
Who trains the trainers… modern slaves?
#Africa #R&D #model-training - Training AI models requires millions of hours of humans tagging and labelling, and this is rapidly becoming the sweat-shop industry of the 21st Century, where labour in Africa is exploited by global multinationals. (Co-Op News and CBS News)
Funding
Zambian-born US fintech founders set up Lusaka office
#Zambia #fintech #funding - US-based Devdraft AI is investing US$10-million in its fintech development office in Lusaka, (CAJ News)
AI Policy
Law firms raise AI governance alarm bells
#Uganda #legislation - A new AI governance and legislation report has been published by digital rights organisation Paradigm Initiative (PIN), supported by four law firms via the Thomson Reuters Foundation’s TrustLaw. The report reveals potentially critical gaps in AI governance across East Africa. (Africa AI News)
Kenyan president champions AI's role in public services
#Kenya #publicsector - President William Ruto has called for the use of AI to revolutionise public services, enhance transparency, and reduce inefficiencies, speaking at the ninth African Economic Zones Organisation's annual meeting in Nairobi on Thursday. (Eastleigh Voice)
Nigeria knocks back bill to regulate AI
#Nigeria #regulation - Nigeria's House of Representatives this week knocked back a bill to regulate the usage of AI technologies. Sponsored by Katsina State, the proposed legislation that was slated for a second reading, but was deferred to allow for consolidation of three other AI-related bills. (The Guardian)
Policy needs input from youth - holds competition for Nigerian youth
#Nigeria #competition - Doing Good Work in Africa (DOWA) has announced the winners of it’s “Policy Challenge” competition to drive input from Nigerian youth, awarding ₦1,600,000 in prize money. (Africa.com)
Global Dialogue on AI Governance wraps up
#Egypt #policy - Last week saw the wrap-up of the Global Dialogue on AI Governance, hosted in Cairo, attended by delegates from the African Union, OECD and local experts. (Daily News Egypt)
Internet Governance Forum wraps up, too
#Ethiopia #policy - Last week also saw the 13th Internet Governance Forum in Addis Ababa, under the auspices of the UN Economic Commission for Africa. An outcome is an African Centre for Cyber Security in Togo. (Shega)
Morocco to form AI policy body
#Morocco #policy - Morocco's Ministry of Digital Transformation will create dedicated body to tackle AI issues, encompassing the digital, legal, and sociological dimensions of AI and its impact on society. Regulation and governance will be aligned with UNESCO’s AI ethics guidelines. (Hespress)
Uganda to develop AI policy framework
#Uganda #policy - Minister of ICT and National Guidance, Dr. Chris Baryomunsi has confirmed that Uganda is soon to draft a policy framework that aims to balance AI's transformative potential, with ethical, societal, and developmental considerations. (Nile Post)
Mozambique telecom regulator to focus on 5G and AI in 2025
#Mozambique #policy - Key 2025 goals for Mozambique's National Institute of Communications (INCM) include expanding infrastructure, biometric subscriber registration, establishing digital libraries, tariff studies, and promoting 5G and AI. The goals were disclosed at the Institute's annual review meeting. (Telecompaper)
Investment
Morocco, Mauritius & Gabon top Africa’s AI investment potential
#Morocco #Mauritius #Gabon - A report released by the French Development Agency (AFD) has identified Morocco, Mauritius, and Gabon as the top countries in Africa with the best potential for AI investment. (Ecofin)
Applications
Deepfake fraud spikes 400% in Africa this year
#Africa #fraud - One of the biggest applications for AI is unfortunately fraud, particularly using AI tools to generate deepfakes. Verification platform Sumsub’s Identity Fraud Report 2024 saw a quadrupling of deepfake fraud in African countries (Middle East saw an astonishing 643% spike). (Connecting Africa)
Feed it data, get a research brief
#Africa #healthcare - Bridging the gap between raw data, models and research briefs is Sauki from Corona Management Systems, a tool that helps researchers generate research briefs and overviews for public health research. (IT News Africa)
Faster fines, faster traffic in Zim
#Zimbabwe #transport - Zimbabwe is getting ready to roll out the AI-powered traffic management system first mooted in May. Identifying vehicle owners and fining them for violations, and adapting traffic light timing to improve flow are some of the intended objectives. (Techpoint Africa)
Education
Simulate the real world, get real-world people to chip in
#Africa #education - Xterns AI (a play on “interns” assumedly) links tech students with industry professionals to provide mentoring as they work through simulated work scenarios generated and tracked by the platform. (Techcabal)
Cape Knowledge Representation symposium registration open
#SouthAfrica #education - The Cape-KR 2025 symposium dedicated to Knowledge Representation is open, taking place in Cape Town 1014 Feb 2025. It will feature discussions, seminars, mentoring programmes. (MLDS forum)
Competitions
Nigerian hackathon winners announced
#Nigeria #hackathon - AI-powered voice-controlled banking app, smart POS and a (first prize-winning) lending solution won top prizes in the Payaza Hackathon 3.0 competition. (Tech in Africa)
Other Nigerian hackathon winners announced
#Nigeria #hackathon - The same week, the fourth Zenith Tech Fair (by Zenith Bank) saw ₦77-million in prizes awarded to a variety of startups. (Okay.ng)
[This newsletter was human edited and AI coated]