- AFRICA AI CHARTER
To reduce regulatory bottlenecks, self-regulation would present the best option. This would advisedly be through effective application and adoption of sustainable business practices. At the heart of sustainability is simply the noble idea of doing the right thing for all stakeholders even though no one is watching. It really is just basic good manners. The track record of AI players is unfortunately woefully bereft of sustainability. To install AI safety measures and guardrails, government regulation is thus the only plausible notion. In 2023, Meta was fined $1.3billion for violating European Union (EU) data privacy laws. This came complete with geopolitical strictures, forbidding Meta to export EU consumers’ data to the USA. And indeed at the time of writing in 2024, the EU AI Act had just been adopted.
The African consumer has no such protection. Opaque activities reeking of insidiousness such as harvesting bio data from African nationals by foreigners in exchange for a few pennies continue to happen.
The loop-hole (more like loop-crater really) is created by the fact that African countries are yet to regulate AI. This is largely due to a runaway AI agenda that is non Africa-centric, exacerbated by fragmented intra and inter country efforts that are at best feeble, unfocussed and inconsistent. The lack of leadership by the respective governments and political class to recognise and prioritize the 4IR in Africa does not help the situation. The default has always been ‘what the west will do, we will adopt’ – a hopeless and annoying attitude that continues to relegate Africa faster and further into social and economic obscurity. The well-being and prosperity of the African citizen has really never been a pressing issue on anyone’s agenda. This must stop. This has to stop. It must stop.
Africa must find the wherewithal to craft a unified approach towards AI in general and governance in particular. With all due respect, such a critical undertaking cannot be left to the vices of lethargic, resource-compromised, long existing bodies with limp, questionable track records such as the AU. Nothing will come of it. Given the dynamics of our continent, the drafting and eventual adoption of a guiding Africa AI Charter is possible. This can be customised and enforced as regulation in alignment with the various jurisdictions within the continent. Pooling financial resources, recruiting the right mix of expertise and harnessing multi-agency goodwill is a sure fire route for Africa to take charge of its AI agenda.
Author Sheida Mutuku
Chief Executive Officer
Woodside Africa Group LLC
Artificial Intelligence (AI) breakthroughs are now common phenomena. Remarkable innovations are constantly on the churn and truly transforming lives and livelihoods at scale. From cutting-edge healthcare to the world of sports…from smart centres of education to the changing face of travel…from the dizzying heights of industry to the core of commerce – the contribution of AI to the advancement of society is laid bare for all to see. It is indisputable. Yet this is just the tip of the iceberg as really 4IR is still at its infancy. Given the exponential growth of AI, the world will certainly look very different every couple of years.
Ever since way back, humanity has been obsessed with progress. The hunger to continuously innovate is insatiable. There is always an unrelenting push for more, more, more. They say when you ask for rain you had better be prepared to deal with the mud. AI in its noble quest to progress humanity, is unfortunately mired deeply in the muck. Mostly propelled by its connectivity nature, AI diffuses the good just as fast as the bad and the ugly.
Case in point, the no-holds-barred nature of politics provides a perfect platform for AI misapplication, misuse and abuse. We are front row witnesses to subversion through inflammatory rhetoric, misinformation, outright deceit through deep fakes and stealth surveillance. Cambridge Analytica is still the reigning poster child for manipulating various electorates on social media platforms in favour of their extremely lucrative political clients.
The weakening of social cohesion through systemic racism and other forms of bias inbuilt into AI tools are rampant. Inequality is fuelled by the well-resourced holders of AI technologies to the detriment and exclusion of the vulnerable economies and its peoples. Shifting combat from the heat of battlefields right into the cosiness of living rooms using unmanned warfare equipment such as drones and precision bombing are now current realities of our times. At the click of a button, an entire nation can just as easily be snuffed out and rendered as extinct as the dinosaur through AI warfare.
Commercial decisions based entirely on top and bottom line considerations have resulted in a rush-to-market, under-researched technologies for first, second or even third mover advantage; with potentially lethal consequences for humanity. For instance, General Motors recalled 950 units of its autonomous vehicles in 2023 for software upgrades after an accident that left a pedestrian seriously injured. Per the Guardian, the company ‘had been expecting annual revenue of $1b from Cruise (its autonomous vehicle unit) by 2025 – a big jump from the $106m in revenue last year.’ An 843% increase within 24 months. This reflects the financial and economic might of AI.
As is evident, at the heart of these violations is the feral jostling for global dominance – whichever way they choose to define it. It is a race for carting away the most money and systematically garnering massive power. Consequently, players are gleefully overstepping clear and well-established moral and ethical boundaries. At the time of writing, the USA had a ‘sell-or-else’ ultimatum chokehold on China through the looming ban of Byte Dance’s lucrative social media app, Tik Tok. As the USA demanded control of Tik Tok seemingly for security purposes, Byte Dance/China was hell bent on protecting its secret sauce of success – the algorithm.
As long as the archaic holy grail of commerce of ‘profit above all else’ is still in rampant practice, moral and ethical issues will proliferate. Undeterred. Business and commerce will continue to be ready platforms for the wild wild west of AI with sentient robots substituting the humble horse. Consequently and understandably, there is a desperate and urgent clamour for sanity and some sense of order (for heaven’s sake) within the AI field in the form of new regulation.
