Africa cannot afford to scale artificial intelligence faster than it can govern the technology, as rapid adoption without adequate safeguards could deepen privacy, discrimination, cybersecurity and accountability risks across the continent, Roseline Ilori, founder and chief executive officer of Bridge57 Solutions Limited, has disclosed.
AI is already moving beyond experimentation into everyday use in Africa, influencing financial services, healthcare, education, agriculture, entertainment, business and public administration. But the speed of deployment is increasingly exposing a gap between technological adoption and the institutions needed to manage its consequences.
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Ilori told BusinessDay that Africa’s AI conversation must shift from how quickly the continent can adopt the technology to whether it can deploy it safely, fairly and accountably.
“The real AI challenge is not adoption. The more important question is whether the systems being deployed are safe, fair, transparent, accountable and appropriate for the people they serve,” Ilori said.
