How African knowledge and wisdom can inspire the development and governance of AI

Incorporating African Wisdom into AI: A Call for Ethical and Inclusive Development

In a dynamic and insightful session moderated by Dr. Jovan Kurbalija of the DiploFoundation, experts gathered to discuss the influence of African knowledge and wisdom on the development and governance of Artificial Intelligence (AI). The session was set against the backdrop of Ubuntu, a philosophy that stresses the importance of community and collective well-being over individualism. This African-centric approach was proposed as a means to shape AI systems that prioritize ethical considerations, transparency, and the communal good.

A critical issue raised was the underrepresentation of African contributions on global knowledge platforms such as Wikipedia. It was pointed out that a mere 5% of content about Africa on Wikipedia is authored by Africans, leading to a misrepresentation of the continent’s rich heritage and perspectives. This gap extends to AI systems, including those planned for the United Nations, which may lack cultural relevance and fail to incorporate African values and ethics due to the absence of African data and insights.

The session highlighted the challenges surrounding data exchange within Africa, emphasizing the need for robust data-sharing mechanisms and infrastructure. Without a comprehensive African dataset, AI systems cannot accurately reflect the continent’s diverse contexts and needs.

Participants stressed the importance of Africans taking ownership of their digital representation by creating and controlling their content. Concerns were voiced about the potential erosion of African languages and traditions as technology influences the younger generation to adopt foreign accents and cultural norms. The role of education was underscored, with an emphasis on empowering young Africans with the skills necessary for software development and AI, enabling them to influence these technologies positively.

The discussion concluded with a strong call to action for moving from theoretical discourse to practical decision-making and implementation. Concrete suggestions included leveraging university students to contribute to Wikipedia, establishing national policies to support local AI solutions, and ensuring fair attribution for contributions to global public goods like AI systems.

Key observations from the session included the need for a structured approach to developing AI skill sets within the African context and the central role of national governments in creating policies that foster local AI solutions. The session also highlighted the importance of decolonizing AI systems to ensure they embody African realities and values.

In summary, the session underscored the urgency for collaborative efforts across Africa to integrate African knowledge, wisdom, and ethical frameworks into AI governance. The goal is to create AI systems that are ethical, sustainable, and beneficial for African societies, reflecting the continent’s diversity in languages, cultures, and perspectives.

Moderator:
So I’ll just frame the session and hand it over to Mr. Jovan, who is the Executive Director of Diplom Foundation, who will then moderate this very exciting session. So allow me to read from my script as these are the interventions that he had purposed to make. So excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to this exceptionally unique session, which is designed to explore how African knowledge and wisdom can inspire development and governance of AI, while leveraging philosophies deeply rooted in African culture, such as Ubuntu, in a manner that provides valuable input into global discussions on the governance of AI by reflecting the continent’s ethos and social wisdom. Today’s session will highlight how promoting collectivism over individualism and incorporating principles of mutual care, empathy and generosity into AI governance through emphasizing the interconnectedness of all people, and the importance of community over individual interests could help ensure that AI systems are designed to benefit entire communities, rather than just serving individual interests. One of the core tenets of Ubuntu is, I am because we are. And this highlights the relational nature of personhood and ethics, emphasizing transparency and accountability to a broader community. Applying this ethics to AI could lead to greater emphasis on algorithmic transparency, explainability, and community consent in the development and deployment of AI systems. And so we believe African efforts promote inclusivity and participatory governance by rejecting centralized power structures and promoting collaborative participatory leadership, based on the consent of the governed and aligns with calls for moving away from the current concentration of power among a few elite actors and institutions. In this session, we’ll explore how can we ensure that development of AI reflects that which is beyond just codes and algorithms, but simplifies humanity’s shared stories, values, and aspirations. We’ll explore elders and intergenerational knowledge transfer, harmony with nature and environmental stewardship, consensus-based decision-making and participatory governance, traditions and storytelling, valuing hospitality and human dignity. Indeed, by drawing from the rich African knowledge and wisdom embodied in Ubuntu, the global community can develop more ethical, inclusive, and socially responsible approaches to AI governance that better reflect the diversity of human values and experiences. I welcome you all to this session and look forward to engaging in the true Ubuntu spirit. Thank you.

Dr. Jovan Kurbalija Executive Director DiploFoundation:
Thank you very much. Let’s start with the Ubuntu spirit. First, excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, dear colleagues, and what is the Ubuntu language, brothers and sisters? I’m Jovan Kurbalija, director of Diplo Foundation and the head of Geneva Internet Platform. And I’m honored today to have with me an excellent panel. On my left-hand side is Linda Aipinge. I hope I pronounce it correctly. Almost there. Almost there. Director of ICT Development of Ministry of Information and Community Technology, Republic of Namibia. Okay. And next to me is Mr. Honourable former Minister, I know that the line can be very long, Mokhtar Yedali. I’m sure that all of you, especially from Africa, know who Mokhtar is. He’s the father of many, many initiatives in the African Union as the head of ICT, but also former Minister of Digital Economy and Transformation in Mauritania. We are waiting for Ambassador Kach, who will join us shortly from Gambia. And I will kick off this discussion with three stories, in the Ubuntu tradition and generally traditional conveying knowledge. Recently I was in Nairobi and I met one of my former students and he has troubles with his marriage. And he basically did the following thing. He wanted to fix it and he asked Chat GPT what to do. And Chat GPT answered him to basically go and see the counsellor, brought his wife to the counselling office, and then they will talk and there will be mediation, etc. And he said, well, she will really send me to hell. By the way, he cheated on her and therefore he was guilty. And then he did the following thing. He called her brother and he said, listen, I really messed up things. I want this marriage to survive. I love my wife. I didn’t do a good thing. Could you really help me to fix these things? And then family started working and he’s still married. He has a nice family with the two kids. But the moral of this story is that what he got from Chargé-Pétit didn’t relate to his problem, how to deal with his marriage in this case. to education, to family, to other things. So this is the first story. Second story, and I will invite all of us, but especially our panelists to reflect, maybe not on marriage business, but everything else is welcome. The second story which really shocked me is that only 5%, according to the study, which is four years old, only slightly four or five years old, only 5% of African knowledge on Wikipedia is written by people from Africa. Now, one can argue that, okay, it doesn’t mean that everything has to be written by people from Africa about Africa, but 5% is very, very little. And we’re speaking about the main repository of the knowledge which we consult when we want to know something about Namibia, about Kenya, about countries, about developments in Africa, like in any other country. This is the second story. And third one is in the making. UN is under a lot of pressure to save money and to modernize. Therefore, UN is going to embark on the AI transformation. UN Secretariat and UN machinery will start using artificial intelligence to process information, to gain insights, to draft decisions, but they already started with JGPT, but it will accelerate. Now, the real question is, what share of African knowledge will be part of the future UN artificial intelligence system? Will African concerns will be reflected in the advises which will be given by artificial intelligence when somebody asks how to deal with this crisis or that crisis? Unfortunately, there are so many crises all over the world. And this is a real question. Therefore, three stories. My former students. his marriage, second Wikipedia 5%, and third point, are we going to have really African values, knowledge, Ubuntu, in particular, not codified knowledge, oral culture, wisdom of elderly, wisdom of community? Is it going to be available when AI starts basically processing data and giving advice to the US Secretariat or to anyone else how to deal with these issues? With these three stories, I won’t bother you with ethics and usual lingo of AI sessions. With these three stories, I would like to invite, let’s start with Mokhtar, because I know he has stable marriage, and to see what would be his reflection on these three stories. Mokhtar.

Moctar Yedaly Region Director GFCE:
First of all, thank you very much, and I’m very honored to be here. But I must also say that this is a very original way to moderate things. I have said great moderators, but this is a very, very great one, starting with those stories. And it really takes out from the classical things of me going through artificial intelligence, strategy, whatever it is, knowledge, definition, all of that. This is something concrete. That is a question that already to the point, and you state really what we need to do for those who are not from the field. But bottom line, on the question number one, the story number one, if I may say, it just reflects the fact that the African knowledge, traditions, way of doing things and solving problems need to be captured. And at this point of time, it’s not really captured. Why? Because the most important data sets on to which the AI is being trained today is not really taking into consideration the data set from Africa. And hence, I can give you more example. For instance, most of. time for the facial recognition, for instance, the data set attained on Anglo-Saxon or Asian kind of features and not really on African features. And sometimes it’s happened, incident few years back, when the AI recognized somebody who is actually dark color as something very bad, was captured. This is the same thing. If the real African stories and specifics are not captured in a very good data set, the conclusion or the program or the AI that will be built will not really reflect that. And rather than being something good for Africa, it becomes something very bad for Africa. So data set is very important. She’s English data and we Africans need to make sure that our data are really built strongly, based on a very good infrastructure. And second, it is really transmitted very well. And once transmitted, by the way, that knowledge of us, or where somebody is taking advantage of it, need to be really shared. And that I will come back to that later. With regard to the issue of Wikipedia, I also noted that few years back and within the African Union context, I have asked many African experts, why all of you have the knowledge, are capable of writing something. And I hold the strong belief that if we are not capable of ourselves as Africans, to measure our own performance, then we will be defined by somebody else. And that somebody has defined, you will not define it without bias, and sometimes a bad bias. And I ask them, why you all have the knowledge and you are capable of writing, Wikipedia is based on a voluntary kind of writing. And say, sir, I cannot, this is the only thing I can hold to get some money. If my knowledge, I put it in the Wikipedia and everybody can get it, then I will not have the capability of selling anything to anybody. The person who is in the well-developed context, he’s well-grounded, he has a good salary, has a good money, has everything, and then he has the luxury to offer something. I don’t have that luxury. And given the low salary as me, as an intellectual person in Africa, I wouldn’t be able really to go pro bono and even pro deo to give my knowledge. And with regard to the policy, it’s the same thing. The way we solve problems, the way we have our own set of things, are not really captured by the literature nor by the data, and that reflects again to the data set. My conclusion here, Jovan, is Africans need to build their own data, their own data set, and more specifically, build their own content. Because the example of what has been said about the marriage, it would work really if we keep our kids now watching the content that is being constructed outside and build another mindset. If we all become Disney boys or girls, then probably the advice coming from Chair Deputy could be good. But if we train our kids and our generations on our own culture and our own knowledge by building our own content into the web, then we’ll be able at that point of time to pretend that our knowledge could be used and our data set would be reflecting our reality.

Dr. Jovan Kurbalija Executive Director DiploFoundation:
Fascinating as always, Mokhtar. Especially this story which opens the real issue, what does it mean to contribute data? Once I was, and I will give you again two stories before we, short stories, before we pass to Linda. Once I was at the event and one smart African gentleman, that was about open data, and he said, I don’t believe in it. And I said, okay, why you don’t? Because you know how narrative goes. He said, okay, the problem is, and he gave me the following example. There are two fishes. The first one is a fish, and the second one is a fish. small fish and shark meeting each other in the ocean and shark tells oh we are equal and small fish said not we are not equal you’re big i’m a small and shark said okay i can prove you that we are equal first i will open first you open your mouth to swallow me and then i will open my mouth to swallow you and that was that was for me like like in the nutshell the the basically dilemma when we have this open these issues but here is a one story that also happened during my recent visit uh there is a project one well-intentioned NGO which goes in one african country east africa i won’t give details and doing interviews with the peasants and asking them okay basically codifying their oral wisdom how do you deal with weather how do you deal with land how do you deal with this and you know people gave their thoughts and then i was curious i said okay where is this data going data is transcribed and basically stored by this NGO and shared as a public good including with the big tech companies and said it’s not fair it’s fine that the african peasant contributes to the global public good it’s okay but it should be indicated as his or her contribution not thrown in some some sort of big uh big black hole where you don’t know what’s what’s going on and then some people basically benefit more therefore this is an important important issue which motor you raised with the practicalities this professor doesn’t have time and money to dedicate to write wikipedia page it’s it’s it is a close to the point i would like to uh welcome ambassador khan the ambassador i mean i heard a lot about you but and I wanted to meet you in person, and it’s now chance during this panel. We started with a few stories in Ubuntu tradition, and we will continue now with Linda, and please go ahead, reflecting on stories or anything else you find appropriate.

Linda Aipinge:
Thank you.

Dr. Jovan Kurbalija Executive Director DiploFoundation:
No, I can give you mine. This one is for you.

Linda Aipinge:
Yes, a very good afternoon to everybody, and thank you so much for the invitation. I’m happy to be here again this year. Last year, I was part of the session, so it’s very encouraging to see that this time again, we stand together. Reflecting on the three stories, I think you’ve talked about the artificial intelligence and about the emerging trends that are ongoing. My biggest concern, just listening or reading recently, was on WhatsApp, your personal, what do you call it? Your personal AI. So where you can chat on WhatsApp, somebody that you know, call your best friend, and you’ll have conversations on and on. Apart from the marriage that you just talked about, then it could also be from the perspective of relationships. If now we have trends emerging, trends like this, how are we going to manage the relationships? Do we still, will we still have friends to continue having friendships? Or what is that? Because your personal AI takes up that place. It’s very scary in terms of where we are going. And then on the second story, in terms of Wikipedia, I think a platform like this really serves as a purpose for us as applicants to have our own voice. We need to. organize ourselves and see what is that that we want to see out there. Yes, we have identified this problem. What is our solution? Where to from here? We have this conversation. What do we do about it? The story that somebody was interviewed, it’s not cited, that information was, you know, obtained from them. What do we do about that? Do we leave the status quo to go? Like, do we leave that to actually be the status quo moving forward? So there is a lot that we need to do. So we need to put measures in place. How do we preserve our knowledge as Africans? How can we have our own stories told by ourselves for ourselves? If I Google about myself, I must be able to get the information about myself. You want to Google about my culture. There must be something that I must relate to. The last one is the wisdom and all this. I think it still takes me back to. The language issue is Africans. Because you listen to Siri on your iPhone, somebody else with a different accent. When our children are growing up. Will they be able to express themselves? What can they get out there or will they still be wanting to talk like Siri? It’s serious because it will either from where I come from, we find where our own children don’t speak our own languages. My language, my mother tongue, my child would not speak. We’d rather speak English. But what are we doing to our traditions? And we see now that technology is taking over, but I think it’s us allowing it. So there is a lot that we need to do ourselves to ensure that we’re well represented. Thank you.

Dr. Jovan Kurbalija Executive Director DiploFoundation:
Thank you. Thank you, Linda, for really linking to practicalities. I was saying, well, this is a global problem. It’s related to Africa, but we may also focus on specificities of Africa. But we are finding it time originally from the Balkans. You’re finding it in the Balkans, in other regions, in Asia, and the other things. But we’ll now connect to ambassador Kah. who is making sure that African voices are heard in Geneva, at least, bringing the sort of grounded comments, common sense comments. And when the hype starts moving all over the place, he said, OK, let’s go and get back to the basics. What does it mean? But before I pass the floor to Basar Kak, I would like to welcome Minister Robert Tanzania. Thank you for joining us today, Minister. ambassador Kah, what would you tell us about this? Any story, but we told three stories about wrong advice to a guy who is in trouble of his marriage in Kenya. That’s one story. The second story about Wikipedia having only 5% of information edited by people from Africa. And third, how future AI system at the UN will reflect African positions and views.

H.E Muhammadou M.O. Kah:
Thank you so much, and good afternoon. And apologies, I was somewhere else, being pulled in another event. I’m not sure what the stories were told, but listening to my sister here, I associate myself with what you have said. What I want to add to that is until and unless we control the heritage, our sanction, and be on the production side of these technologies, we will still lose the wisdom, we will still lose the ability to be effective and to be efficient, and to lose more than what we are gaining. So I think education is very important. Education is the key, and also these technologies are not something that we should follow the way we’ve been following them, because if we follow the technology and we consume us on top of the services of this technology, then we will lose our wisdom, we will lose. capabilities and what makes Africa African. You talked about Siri. Why are we not the ones that produce Siri? If we produce Siri and use these language models, we will be able to use natural language processing to begin to codify our indigenous languages and have the accents that relates to us to be represented and be the output out there. So African knowledge and wisdom can profoundly inspire the development and governance of AI in my mind. One, the community-centered approaches are very relevant. African cultures emphasize community. How do we make sure that the sense of community is embedded in these applications and tools that we are worried about that is taking away that community and that proximity that we have? Until and unless we drive this narrative and influence the interconnectedness and the collaboration that is anchored in the African context, then we will be consumed by other cultures that governs the production of these technologies and these services. I think you mentioned the Ubuntu philosophy. How do we ensure that the Ubuntu philosophy is embedded in production of systems? I can because we are. If I am a developer and gathering the requirements of a technology or of a platform, I will be able to embed the importance of community, the importance of relationships, and the importance of mutual caring in tools and services. So applying this to AI could promote the creation of technologies that will enhance social cohesion and collective well-being, focusing on ethical frameworks that consider the impact of AI in all communities, which is truly African. So just like we have to decolonize knowledge, we have to decolonize AI systems and mechanisms and decolonize code that governs the output. of use. We were able to do that by making sure that appropriate education of computer scientists, information system developers, to be mindful of infusing and embedding the importance of context and culture in language models and in code that will produce the output for use. The other important aspect for African wisdom and culture is inclusivity and diversity. Africa’s rich diversity in languages. You’ve mentioned the fear of losing languages. We have very diverse cultures of languages and perspectives that can contribute to more inclusive AI systems that can add additions to global differences. In my mind, AI is not something we should be scared of. We should not be scared of these new technologies. It’s how we appropriately respond to this emergence of technologies and ensure that we are around the table that are developing these technologies to make sure that designing AI will avoid biases that are present in more homogeneously developed technologies, making these systems fairer and more effective globally. Wikipedia is not the problem. The content and the producers of this content is the challenge. Why are we not among the producers? Why are we just five percent? Why should we make it our business to make sure that we infuse African narratives and content into Wikipedia so that Wikipedia is not biased? We cannot have these technologies and say these technologies are wrong or are not representative of African values and content. Nobody stops us from doing that. Technology is democratized. The only difference is who have the superiority of knowledge and the discipline to develop themselves on the production side. The other ones that you’ve mentioned Mr. Chair, is the importance of indigenous knowledge. Indigenous knowledge systems, leveraging indigenous knowledge systems in AI, like traditional ecological knowledge or local agricultural practices or health practices can produce unique insights and sustainable practices and long-term planning strategies. When we integrate these to promote the development of AI, it will support sustainable development and environmental stewardships, which will be anchored in African values and African realities. The only important aspects within the African fabric is ethics. Africa is very big and it’s all cultures across Africa that have ethical foundations that governs coexistence and behavior. So the African moral and ethical systems, which often emphasizes the balance between individual rights and community responsibilities. How can we make sure that these principles can be an integral path in creating AI governance frameworks that balance innovations and societal norms and human rights and ethical considerations? There is a lot that AI governance and frameworks can be strengthened by invoking traditional African ethical foundations in my mind. So as we grapple with what the true AI governance is going to be, I think there’s an opportunity to invoke traditional African ethical foundation that can walk its way into AI governance, which are often not looked at as opportunities. Africa is known historically to have grounded foundation on rights, as well as on ethical foundation, which can influence AI governance. The other aspect is the tradition of oral tradition and storytelling. African oral traditions and storytelling are powerful. They’re very powerful means for transmitting knowledge and cultural values. You just have to go to any African community. to see that. So how do we make sure that AI development can incorporate these narrative-based technologies to improve natural language processing so that these natural language processings are not biased, they are contextualized, and they factor the norms and realities and values of African knowledge that is embedded in oral tradition and storytelling. So the language processing models can create AI that better understands and interacts with human emotions and cultural context. So if you have Siri or you have any of these tools and services, they will be African compliant or African cultural compliant and can embed the diversity of African languages and contexts and behavior because certain behaviors in African contexts may be interpreted differently in another African context. African cultural diversity and context is not one glove fits all. They’re as diverse as possible, and I think technology allows us the ability to capture all of these and have them interact in a dynamic way. Lastly, the holistic views on knowledge. Many African philosophical outlooks embrace a more holistic view of knowledge that integrates spiritual, social, and material dimensions. These perspectives can challenge often the reductionist and profit-driven approaches in technology. I hope I’m making sense. Encouraging a more balanced view of what AI should achieve. I think this is a very, very important perspective and fundamental on how knowledge is viewed before knowledge is codified and translated into tools and services that are going to be used, which influences the governance structure of AI. Can I stop there?

Dr. Jovan Kurbalija Executive Director DiploFoundation:
Thank you, Ambassador. Well, I feel very guilty to be time manager for such a great introduction. That was really fascinating, from the holistic tradition to so many aspects to the question which resonated with me two points. And I will ask Mokhtar and Linda to develop on that. One point is it’s not only about Africa. It’s about contribution to the diversity of the global AI systems. I don’t think we should view it only as a North-South relation. But it is enrichment of the global system. And then, back to what Mokhtar opened with this professor whom you mentioned, there is a possibility. Wikipedia is open. Source, we can start editing this in a few minutes. You need five minutes, basically, to set the count. But what is this gap between possibility and reality? And then, Mokhtar, maybe you can develop furthermore on any other points from Ambassador and Linda. And then, we’ll return to Linda and then open the floor for comments and questions.

Moctar Yedaly Region Director GFCE:
Of course. Well, I want to thank the two panelists for their great contributions. They do inspire. They were doing a lot, specifically the Ambassador. The issue that has been raised to me, I can just summarize without being too long. Is the issue of content. As I said at the beginning, if you don’t define yourself, somebody else will define you. And I hold really the belief, the strong belief, that if we Africans are not defining ourselves, whether it is in the web or anywhere else, unless somebody has to define us, that is actually our own constraint. Hence, the issue of content is extremely important. the kids speaking only English. It’s not only, by the way, as you say, it’s not only for Africans, it’s the same thing. Siri doesn’t answer to me, but answer to my daughter, because my daughter speaks very kind of Disney things that has been taught there, and I speak English from whatever, I don’t know what kind of accent that you have. When I ask Siri to do something, she doesn’t understand, she says, beg your pardon, I don’t understand you. But then my daughter said, let me do that. She says something, and Siri accepts, because my daughter has trained herself by watching YouTube and learning about the content. That’s why I mentioned, if we all become the Walt Disney people, or the content of Bollywood, or Bollywood, whatever it is, or become a universal civilization which has no distinction of who is who, then probably, yes, we can have unified kind of unified technology of AI, or whatever it is, and all live in peace, like, you know, one set of people. But if we do have, if we still wanted to have our specificities, our distinction, then we need to start computing with the content. If you don’t enter into the competition of developing content, then you will be absorbed by other people who produce content, and then the whole issue is there. Our philosophy, as mentioned by previous speakers, are extremely contributing to the whole society development. It’s, we have another approach of our solving problems, because as we say, engineering is not about calculation, because it’s about problem solving. And we have our way to solve our problem. We have our own algorithm. The issue of marriage is our one algorithm. We go to the brother. to the parents, to the family, to the chief of the village, to whatever and speak and we solve the problem. We don’t go to the psycho, we don’t have actually psychiatrists, we don’t pay a hundred dollars to go to speak to the sofa and do that. We go and speak to our brothers, sisters, friends and so on and we fix our problem. That is our own algorithm. If that algorithm is not embedded into the future technologies, emerging technologies, then our destiny is disappearing and we need to think about that. Thank you.

Dr. Jovan Kurbalija Executive Director DiploFoundation:
Powerful message. Powerful message. Powerful message. Powerful message. Yes, definitely. Thank you, Mokhtar. Well, what a line from Ambassador Mokhtar. Linda, now we have to step up the arguments, you know, please.

Linda Aipinge:
Yeah, no, thank you very much. I think for me, we all are aware of, like I said earlier, what the challenges are in terms of, yes, we are confronted with this technology that is emerging, but the question still remains, how do we organize ourselves? We then need to ensure that the education was spoken about and also capacity building and ensuring that our young people are also equipped. We need to look at, like, software development, part of it. Are we giving them, we talk about the girls and all that, but I think girls and boys, are we giving them enough opportunities? Are we encouraging them to be into software development so we give them the opportunity? I believe it’s us that should make that change because we know exactly what the problem is. With platforms like this or any other platforms, can we come together and say, yes, these are our issues. We are not present. What are we doing? Can we have certain targets? Can we have certain responsibilities so that we move from from theory to practice. Because as far as I’m concerned, if we continue just having conversations and nothing is happening, then the storyline will remain the same. We’ll come back in the same room next year and nothing has been done. And we start the conversation all over. I think I really would want to suggest that I think that moving from here, let’s organize ourselves. Either at our regional blocks, moving them to the continent as a whole, and then we each put our ideas together and say, as a continent, how would we preserve our knowledge? How do we ensure that we are represented how we want to be represented out there? Who are we empowering to ensure that they are representing us? And especially the young people have the capabilities and they’re into this space. They’re the ones that, like Ambassador said, the child, our children are more advanced than ourselves. We need to accept it. So we need to give them opportunities so that they can make a change for us. Thank you.

Dr. Jovan Kurbalija Executive Director DiploFoundation:
Thank you, Linda. I realized just that there is a watch here, which is invention. How is famous saying the Western civilization invented watches and Africa’s invented time? There is something along these lines. We have about seven minutes. It’s so precious, precious panel. And I wish we dedicated more. I think we had one book intervention from Ethiopia, I guess, and then we will open for the floor. Let us be in Ubuntu tradition, constructive, short and to the point, to benefit from the wisdom of the panel. Please, over to you.

Audience:
Sure. Thank you. Thank you very much. Just, I think it is very hard to speak after Ambassador Kerr, who is the professor on this issue. And other people who speaks a lot about it. First of all, I would like to thank the Permanent Mission of Kenya and the Diplo Foundation for arranging this. Thank you very much. My name is Amsalu from the Permanent Mission of Ethiopia, Minister-Counselor in charge of. I’ve been the Permanent Mission of Kenya for convening this event. As I said, it’s very hard to speak as an ambassador on this issue, but at least to second what Ambassadors and others said. African knowledge and wisdom can inspire development and governance of AI. I’m saying African knowledge and wisdom can inspire development and governance of AI. As has been said, we Africans give emphasis on community and collaboration. This culture often prioritizes community and collaboration over individualism. We Africans speak for nature and environment. As we know, many African cultures have a deep respect for nature and the environment, being examined as interconnected and interdependent systems. We also emphasize on storytelling as an example. In our case, there is a so-called sermon hour. We are rich in storytelling and oral traditions. At the same time, Africans view the world in holistic and interconnected ways. That means this perspective can influence the development of AI technologies that take into account broader social, ethical, and cultural implications of AI rather than focusing solely on technical aspects. Overall, African knowledge and wisdom can provide valuable insights and perspectives that can help guide the development and governance of AI in the way it is ethical, sustainable, and beneficial for societies as a whole.

Dr. Jovan Kurbalija Executive Director DiploFoundation:
Thank you.

Audience:
For the sake of time, let me stop here. But we have so many examples that even in Ethiopia, we are trying to develop our round using a mic. And still, there is actually a challenge. You know, we have a priority with very limited sort of time. I think it is good if someone adds some words about how to come up with those challenges regarding the society. Thank you very much.

Dr. Jovan Kurbalija Executive Director DiploFoundation:
Thank you very much. And we should include also skis to dance. I’m a big fan of skis to dance. We should put it. We have a short statement here. One from you, then, you gentlemen, three. And then we will return to the minister where you made. If you feel like reflecting, you’re also welcome. I don’t know how the time is. Who is in charge? Is it Gilutin? OK, please.

H.E Muhammadou M.O. Kah:
Thank you, Professor. I actually have a question. We heard the word African data to fit into AI many times from their excellencies here. But my question is, what are the data exchange mechanisms that we have in place within the continent to actually have what you call the African data set? What is the African data set? I think we have a fundamental issue with data exchange across the continent between countries and sometimes between sectors within countries. So all of that needs to be collected to have what you can label the African data set. Then we can get into this ambitious and insightful plans that you guys have just told us about. So I think we need to solve that puzzle.

Dr. Jovan Kurbalija Executive Director DiploFoundation:
Excellent question. I would add also knowledge. We all speak about data. For those of a bit older generation like me, I remember knowledge management, which is completely clean from the human language. Which in my view is more important for AI than even data. Please.

Audience:
Thank you very much for this excellent session. My name is Peter Horko. I am the chairman. of the World Summit Awards. And we started in 2003 with Adama Samaseko, who was at that time the President of the African Academy of Languages and former Minister of Education for Mali. And we have done for the last 21 years the World Summit Awards as a focus on how to make sure that the voice, the creative voice of Africans and Asians, of people from the Balkans, from Latin America, in terms of creating quality content and individual localized solutions, how they are actually, I mean, getting a knowledge base for us to have a humanistic transformation into the knowledge society. My question is, why is this entire topic, 21 years after Adama Samaseko led the preparatory process, not the main issue of this business conference, but what we are talking about in this small room here and not on the global stage there? I want to know about the power relationships within businesses and ITU and so on to suppress exactly that kind of sharing of knowledge and traditions. Thank you very much.

Dr. Jovan Kurbalija Executive Director DiploFoundation:
Peter, fascinating question about what’s happened over 20 years. And this Adama Samaseko was a person who embodied the key of AI, which was language and culture knowledge. Thank you for this great reminder, which sometimes we forget. We have the next question, then we move to, well, I don’t know how we are going to, maybe microphone is over there. You’ll have a time and then please.

Audience:
Good afternoon. My name is Mark. I’m from Uganda. I very much relate with the audio submissions, the African contribution. towards AI. At the end of the day, we must realize AI is a human creation. So the values embedded are human. Now, I don’t know in your secondary schools, at the time someone spoke a language which was not English, they were punished. Many of you have children who have English names. I think it’s time for us to stop blaming everyone else, start creating the solutions inherently. And that’s through education. By the time someone goes through school, they do not have to think that the person who discovered River Nile was a cellular baker, and yet there were existing populations around. I am just trying to be as realistic as possible.

Dr. Jovan Kurbalija Executive Director DiploFoundation:
Or Christopher Columbus.

Audience:
Exactly. So we need pride. We lack pride. And as long as you don’t have pride, you don’t have change. So laws will change. But we must understand where we’re coming from. Others will be here next year eating this nice dish.

Dr. Jovan Kurbalija Executive Director DiploFoundation:
We’re all getting older. But I think the spirit of discussion overall was less blaming others. So far, from Mokhtar, from Inder, from Ambassador Khan, it was more, okay, what we can do. Therefore, you are spot on points on the question, what we can do now and here to change things. And we will hear from you. Could you introduce yourself?

Audience:
Thank you very much. And I wish to thank the previous speakers for the great points made. Yes, 20 years ago, First of all, I come from Ghana, I’m from the private sector, just one group of companies. 20 years ago, Africa were focusing on developing our ICT policies. So we had a template and under the guidance of AU and the ECA, we were all able to develop our roadmaps. We moved on to our e-government templates. We moved on to our digital economy templates under the guidance of the AU Secretary. It was time we move now under the guidance of AU and Smart Africa to develop our template for skillset development in AI algorithms so that we can break the linguistic barriers and make a breakthrough. We need a structured approach as Africans, and that is what is important now. And I want to thank him for making that point. While this discussion has been narrowed, this discussion just as those days was on the floor for ICT policies should be seen at the ICT policy level, at the full session level of the OASIS.

Dr. Jovan Kurbalija Executive Director DiploFoundation:
Thank you very much. We have a comment from the head of the regulatory authority of Kenya. You’re here. And then we will hear from the minister and then we’ll pass the microphone back to the speakers.

Audience:
Thank you very much. I think I just want to say what this brother of mine from Uganda said that we need to do it ourselves because we have been told if you’re not on the table when they’re making the menu, you find yourself with the menu. And I’m sure we know it’s us who don’t carry ourselves. We are supposed to be carrying ourselves because this guy who they say that he’s the one who powered the lake, Lake Victoria, it is the natives who went and showed him where the lake was. And then, when you go to the website, you find it was invented by somebody who was shown by our people where it was. We need to be on the table ourselves and make sure we allow ourselves to be known and to be heard. Even here in Kenya, we are getting known, we are fighting for our space. I think us in Africa, we should join hands and fight for our space. Thank you.

Dr. Jovan Kurbalija Executive Director DiploFoundation:
Thank you. Thank you, Director. Minister, there is one saying linked probably to Serengeti, where I always say, when the diplomacy started, when our predecessors jumped from the tree in Serengeti, started fighting each other and realized that it was better to negotiate than to fight. It’s a long history to first humans that, as we know, came from your region, Minister.

Audience:
Yeah, thank you. Thank you very much. Sorry for getting late here. I wish I could have listened to those two, three stories, which you started with. But I would like to thank Kenya for organizing this. And from the discussion, I realized that this discussion started long ago. He said 20, 21 years ago, 20 years, but because of time, let me say this. Actually, we have discussed this topic enough to get to concessions that we are facing challenges. We are facing threats to the continent. And it’s time now we get out of experts’ discussion and let’s take this to decision makers so that we can make decisions and start moving to rescue our continents. You know, when she was giving examples of, I have three children and the second born, he is speaking. in the normal English, but you know, I’m struggling to understand each other, me and him. And his older brother usually helps me to understand him. Why? Because he’s learning from, you know, the contents that are produced from somewhere else. And if this is happening to my son, it will happen to the sons of Africa. And guys, let’s remember, the statistics are showing the workforce after some few years will come from Africa. And if we are not preparing them to face these realities, it is the fact that this workforce is going to be destroyed. So my humble request from all of you, experts of this topic, let’s get out of this discussion. Let’s take this to decision-makers. We mentioned here the issue of content. Contents needs decision because we need resources to produce these contents and put them into the technology. So my humble suggestions to you, let’s take a decision of, because we agree that we have the problem. Let’s take it to decision-making. Let’s decide and let’s move. It’s not fair that we discuss the same thing. The threat is coming and coming and approaching to our rooms, but yet you are still discussing. I think let’s get out of this and take it to decision-makers. And we know exactly to the continent, we know where if we take it, the decision will be made and let’s move. This is my humble suggestion to you guys. Thank you.

Dr. Jovan Kurbalija Executive Director DiploFoundation:
Thank you, minister, for this call for action. And maybe you can just pass microphone for a quick reflection from the ambassador closing and then Mokta. and Linda, many open issues, many calls for action, and I will conclude with three concrete suggestions where we can go from here, just to respond to this call from the movement. Ambassador, maybe not anymore.

H.E Muhammadou M.O. Kah:
Thank you so much. I think the Minister, the Honorable Minister, have said the last most important point, the central role of national governments. Policy frameworks are very important. Governments can establish policies that incentivize the integration of local knowledge and cultural practices in AI development or any emerging technology that is being developed, and this may include funding for research, which is very important, and development initiatives that prioritize local AI solutions and collaborations with indigenous communities. I wanted to quickly respond to my brother’s point on data. I think for a very long time, if we look at this space historically, we’ve been focusing on digital divide, digital technologies, and not so much finding the connectedness of building data infrastructure as well as digital infrastructure. After all, AI is fed by data, and we have abundance of it across our countries, but as you rightly said, even our countries, because lack of data infrastructure as part of the footprint of development is missing. So until and unless we begin to establish data infrastructure and data governance in our countries that contextualize the realities of the country, then we will have silos approach to this AI. I don’t want to take your time, but the also importance of capacity and building. Education is critical. We cannot cut and paste our way to this technology.

Dr. Jovan Kurbalija Executive Director DiploFoundation:
You have immunity, Ambassador, but I will be the by the speakers of the next session. Thank you very much. Three concrete points. We did a recording from this and AI summarized the session. If one day, any statement from this is commercialized, you should be paid. Ambassador for the great comment, Mokhtar Linda question. This is important. We should be paid for the knowledge. Second point, explanation of AI through UNFLEX. AI is much more simpler than we were told by some Altman and other guys. I invite you to consult it. And third point, let’s go back to our countries. Let’s go to university. Ask students, not professors who are learning for the survival, maybe to write their assignments for the Wikipedia. Therefore, political science, law, professors give them task, write something on Namibia or Tanzania and European Union and United States and publish on Wikipedia. We may have some simply innovative solution, but we will follow up with email and I can see the movement, but I’m not going to be declared persona non grata. Thank you for a great session and great upload to our panelists. Thank you.