In 2024, the African Union Executive Council announced the Continental AI Strategy, highlighting the need for an Africa-centric AI development strategy. The Continental AI Strategy focuses on ethical and sustainable AI development and reduces risks in developed technologies, relying on the cooperation of African Union member states. Through this strategic development of AI, the African Union hopes to achieve the goals outlined in Agenda 2063, the framework for establishing Africa as a “future world power,” while also achieving the Sustainable Development Goals created by the United Nations.
African countries are already implementing AI in impactful ways. In 2023, Google’s Flood Hub AI began including African countries in its data sources to address increased flood risk due to the climate crisis. So far, AI-based flood predictions have shown “extremely high accuracy.” In 2024, the PlantVillage app offered Zambian farmers the opportunity to start mitigating the impact of the climate crisis on Zambia’s critical agricultural crops. The app uses AI to identify various pests and diseases that plague crops and creates a large database to facilitate solutions to ensure food security. This free app encourages users to continue expanding their database.
Perhaps the most notable development in AI is that African countries such as Nigeria and Rwanda are developing AI with digitized language models to include a variety of local languages in their AI datasets. African languages are often not included in global AI models, and inclusion of this data is essential for African citizens to effectively use AI.
The establishment of the AI Hub for Sustainable Development Startup Accelerator Pilot also highlights Africa’s ability to further develop AI technologies as the program connects AI-focused startups and investors across Africa. The partnerships generated by this platform will help implement the continental AI strategy.
With its Continental AI Strategy, the African Union wants to further focus on Africa-centric AI development, leveraging its technology to strengthen the economies of African Union countries, create more job opportunities, and improve health and education, while prioritizing sustainability and addressing the climate crisis. The strategy plans to use AI to improve the lives of people in Africa while “leaving no one behind.” Fortunately, Africa already has an AI-ready environment, with countries like Rwanda, Ethiopia, and Kenya already established as hubs of innovation, with tech-savvy populations ready to drive technology development. And as part of the action plan, African Union countries will begin investing in the infrastructure needed to successfully establish and sustain a startup AI ecosystem.
The Continental AI Strategy also emphasizes the need for African Union countries to collaborate on the development of AI, including investment in and deployment of AI in both the public and private sectors. Promoting AI development through innovative start-ups at regional and national levels will enable African Union countries to integrate AI into Agenda 2063 focus areas such as healthcare, education, agriculture, and sustainability.
The final step in the strategy’s action plan is to expand these AI partnerships around the world and further advance Africa’s place on the world stage.
Still, the Continental AI Strategy recognizes the risks associated with developing AI: lack of diversity and bias in data, cybersecurity concerns, potential privacy violations, and the potential for the spread of misinformation. The first step in the action plan is to develop regional and national AI governance and regulatory levels to address these concerns. By centering AI development in Africa, this strategy also addresses the lack of diversity that often hinders other AI models. The action plan includes the need to expand the model to include women, immigrants, people with disabilities, and communities with different values. The action plan also emphasizes the need for AI models to prioritize human rights and dignity above all else.
Successful implementation of a continental AI strategy will bring significant benefits to the economies and populations of African Union countries. And, through the steps outlined, the plan will encourage regulatory enactment and increase attention to the ethical and sustainable use of AI around the world.
