Artificial Intelligence and Risks of Digital Colonization in Africa

Africa should not be isolated from the international scientific community, but it doesn’t mean to accept digital colonization by foreign entities. For a Senegalese expert in artificial intelligence (AI), there is a risk that large multinational AI companies will impose their solutions on the African continent, thus crowding out the creation of local solutions.

With the development of new technologies, it is believed that Artificial Intelligence (AI) can contribute to resolving some major problems in Africa, ranging from farming to health issues. However, Seydina Moussa Ndiaye, a Senegalese AI expert and member of the United Nations advisory body on machine learning, is sounding the alarm over possible digital “colonization” of the African continent if foreign companies continue to exploit the data African countries without actively involving local stakeholders.

On the one side, the advantages of AI for the continent cannot be ignored. One significant application of the AI development can be in the introduction of African cultural identities across the world. Africa has been a continent with a cultural identity that has not has the ability to impose itself worldwide. Thus, the integration of AI into different sectors in Africa can result in many promising transformations.

On the other side, this novel technology can bring serious threats with itself, with the biggest being the risk of colonization, possibly imposing the decisions of large multinationals throughout the continent, leaving no room for proposing local solutions. An even more important issue is changing Africa to the scene where AI technologies are tested, with experiments taking place on humans with chips or even integrated biotechnology elements improved throughout the current technological innovations.

The application of every new technology, including artificial intelligence, requires certain and established frameworks, but unfortunately, there are no transparent frameworks for the existing AI technologies or if there are some, their effectiveness is under question. Thus, there is currently a real gap that requires to be addressed before deciding whether AI can benefit or harm the African continent.

The main point is that Africa should not be isolated from the international scientific community, but it doesn’t mean to accept digital colonization by foreign entities. Promising results can be achieved through the potential of AI to tackle critical issues, while it is critical to deal with concerns about the marginalization of local actors throughout this technological transformation.

References
https://news.un.org/en/story/2024/01/1144342
https://turkiye.un.org/en/257167-interview-ai-expert-warns-digital-colonization-africa#:~:text=Artificial%20intelligence%20(AI)%20is%20ripe,African%20data%20without%20involving%20local
https://interestingengineering.com/culture/ai-warns-digital-colonization-africa
https://afriqueitnews.com/tech-media/expert-ia-met-garde-colonisation-numerique-afrique/