Some perspectives on AI regulation in Africa. By Abdullahi Tsanni.
"Africa’s push to regulate AI starts now" My two cents?
1. African governments should support & protect African startups that are getting stolen from under the guise of "open source."
See our paper here with @asmelashteka and Paul Anzunre
These startups are doing much better work and actually hiring people from the continent, with shoe string budgets and no support.
https://pml4dc.github.io/iclr2023/pdf/PML4DC_ICLR2023_39.pdf
For those still on Twitter, Paul had a great thread on the topic.
2) African governments should care about the refugees like @refugeesinlibya who are being displaced from war and other atrocities and can't even live on the continent in peace. Borders across the continent are more stringent because of AI-enabled fortress EU.
See their poignant letter to the African Union.
https://www.refugeesinlibya.org/af/copy-2-of-letter-to-the-pope
3) Despots are using "AI" on their own people for surveillance and warfare, regardless of what we keep on hearing about how we can use "drones to deliver medicine."
Biometric IDs, surveillance tech, Pegasus spyware, are things African governments are spending money on.
4) Africans hired to do data labor and content moderation are getting exploited, traumatized, living with PTSD, and discarded. Our collaborators & researchers will tell you how much worse it is than reported by anyone.
Read some of the reports by @perrigo & @karenhao
I agree with Nyalleng"Moorosi says Africa must develop a model for local AI regulation & governance...“If it works with people and works for people, then it has to be regulated,” she says."
But to do all this you need governments that aren't bought & governments that care about their people.
What a world it would be if we in Africa could rely on our governments to do what's right for us.
Are there any reports that you can recommend? My institution has jumped head first on the bandwagon, leaving all ethical questions for later. I just can't see a use case that is not ethically compromised, and I will need all the evidence I can find to make the argument.
Timnit Gebru (she/her).
Passenger
Antonio Páez 🇲🇽🇨🇦
wasabi brain