Executive Summary
Artificial intelligence (AI) is a rapidly growing sector within the African innovation ecosystem. Amidst rapid technological advancements and growth in the development and application of AI solutions in African countries, it has been noted that AI technologies pose ethical quandaries like privacy violations, algorithmic bias, and safety concerns. As a result, governments, organizations, and institutions are drafting or adopting AI ethical policies to guarantee responsible and moral development and application of AI technologies. African nations such as Tunisia, Egypt, and Nigeria have made the initial moves to establish governance and policies to direct the development and application of AI in their countries, while other nations are still lagging. Thus, there is a need to explore the sentiments on AI ethical policies of innovators and entrepreneurs in Africa, as well as the opportunities and difficulties they encounter when implementing ethical AI systems.
The goal is to foster excellence in AI ethical policy adoption, development, and use in Africa. The study utilized both qualitative and quantitative research methods with the use of proprietary vocabulary to discover and extract quality information from the literature, and from AfriLabs’ enormous datasets of African policymakers, Governments, and innovation ecosystems. A snowballing approach was utilized to increase the coverage and diversity of the collected data and its stakeholders. The following data collection methods were deployed; desk research of stakeholders by country, review of AI stakeholders’ engagement through key information interviews and focus group discussions, case studies, and online surveys. A webinar session was used to discuss findings and get feedback and inputs from relevant stakeholders and contributors in the ecosystem. A total of 300 publications/ resources and 165 participants contributed in the secondary and primary data collection respectively. The result shows there is a small number of about 10% of the collected responses indicating the adoption, development, and use of AI ethical policies in African countries are in the initial stage. The major challenges that hinder the adoption and development of AI ethical policies include limited understanding of AI, funding, lack of access to data, inadequate infrastructure such as internet connectivity, and skills shortage. The study recommends AI startups enhance collaborative networks for resource sharing within the AI stakeholder’s ecosystem, and development of adequate infrastructure that will enhance the adoption of AI ethical policies.
This project aims to:
1.Map and identify AI ethical policies in Africa
2.Examine sentiments about AI eth- ics among African AI practitioners
3.Analyse implications of these policies on African innovators and entrepreneurs. 4.Provide recommendations for promoting, complying with, and leveraging these AI ethical policies
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Ethical Horizons - Mapping AI Policy in Africa May, 2024
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