Tech giant Microsoft recently posted a blog — or better a visionary white paper — titled AI in Africa: Meeting the Opportunity. It is not for reading on an easy Sunday breakfast, but if you are sitting somewhere in Nairobi stranded by floods, it is worth the slog if one glosses over a lot of the self-back-patting. Perhaps except for mobile phones, when it comes to game-changing developments like artificial intelligence (AI), and messenger RNA vaccines, Africa is often like the grumpy lad in the township along the highway.
He sits by the highway, counting the vehicles as they drive by, bemoaning his misfortunes, cursing those who whizz past in fancy cars, and railing against the local MP who promised to make them rich, but has never returned since they elected him. Life goes by, the world moves forward and, as someone put it, Africa then waits “to talk about leapfrogging”. Microsoft does a great service because it does a whole lot of good showing that AI in Africa is not all hot air.
Innovative businesses, organisations, and governments have been doing important work with it. I must confess I was a little awed to see the extent of their exertions. There are many brilliant examples all over Africa, but we shall be tribal and focus on the standout cases from the East African Community.
Zipline: If you are feeling lazy, best to jump to the “AI in Action in Africa” section. Here is a sample. It starts with Zipline, which was birthed in Rwanda in 2016.
It started using .
