Can Artificial Intelligence help us tackle the pressing issues in Africa?
“The rise of powerful AI will be either the best or the worst thing ever to happen to humanity. We do not yet know which.” Scientist Stephen Hawking spoke these noteworthy words in 2016. We haven’t made much progress in resolving the issue he raised. We still don’t know if AI will deliver the greatest or the most horrible outcomes of humanity.
Let’s look at a few challenges that we are currently facing:
1) Economic Inequality: Using the most recent figures from World Bank 10 of the world’s 19 most unequal countries are in sub-Saharan Africa.
2) Food Hunger: World hunger estimates undernourishment rose from 777 million in 2015 to 821 million in 2017. Africa has the highest prevalence of undernourishment, estimated in 2016 to be 20% of the population. This is especially alarming in Eastern Africa, where it is suspected that one-third of the population is undernourished.
3) Unemployment: World Banks stats show that unemployment is high among young Africans, constituting about 60% of jobless people in Africa.
4) Education: UNESCO study shows Africa has the highest rates of educational exclusion in the world. Over one-fifth of children between the ages of 6 and 11 and one-third between the ages of 12 and 14 are out of school. Almost 60 percent of children in sub-Saharan Africa between the ages of 15 and 17 are not in school.
Artificial Intelligence: A Great Potential for Good.
Agriculture: The traditional way to increase food production is to expand farmable land. But nearly half of the planet’s potentially productive farmland is already used for agriculture. Combine that with the realities of fragile ecosystems, the impact of global warming and it’s clear that we need to go beyond the traditional if we hope to solve the world hunger issue.
Instead of the “pray-and-spray” approach, farmers can now use the herbicide application, a typical example is the LettuceBot from Blue River which is working to distinguish between a weed and a sprout of lettuce based on learning from more than a million images of 5,000 young plants. When it identifies a weed, it sprays it directly. This cut losses by up to 90%.
Data from drones, remote sensors, satellites, and smart farm equipment provides farmers with valuable real-time information on soil, crop health, and weather conditions. This intelligence helps farmers make smarter decisions on where to grow crops, how to optimize crop rotations, and when to sow, compost, and harvest those crops.
Education: Virtual Reality learning possibilities: Seeing is believing, many of the young kids in the rural areas lack exposure and many have never been to towns. One of the biggest achievements of technology is providing people with experiences they didn’t have a chance to try before. Virtual reality-technologies give us a chance to visit places we’ve never been to and do something we’ve never done. For education, virtual reality is more than just a tool of entertainment. Students will have a chance to get closer to things they learn about — space and nature, complex projects and concepts.
Engineering: AI can be used in the active computation of losses. By using smart pipes with sensors that can actually communicate or rather feel the amount of water in the pipe and be able to tell how much they losing then we can tackle the issues of pipe leakages that contribute a great percentage of Non-Revenue Water(NRW) that are costing the majority of local government millions of dollars . NRW is the difference between the volume of water supplied and the volume of water billed for a particular region. For example, an analysis carried out in one of the cities in Zimbabwe in 2012 revealed that the NRW for the city to be 69% or 102,413m3/day which amounts to a revenue loss of $11.968mil/annum. With so many losses, using smart pipes eliminates the need of having to regularly have personnel check the pipes and thus operation and maintenance costs are reduced. The pipes will have some degree of independence and make their own decisions without human intervention. In addition, water is conserved especially in regions with serious water shortages. Special thanks to Prisca Nyamukondiwa for her work and contribution.
A positive view of the future
I believe tackling some of Africa’s most pressing concerns using the new technologies will make a lasting impact. AI and other technologies do have the power to solve some of Africa’s grand challenges, and we should approach the potential with a positive view as the AI will enable us as humans to do and be much more just like electricity did in the industrial revolution. It’s exciting to see a number of AI start-ups in South Africa and across the continent. Now is the time for more constructive conversations, for the exchange of ideas, and for more collaborations between futurists, technologists, entrepreneurs, and innovators. AI offers the chance to overcome obstacles and create new marketplaces that will benefit everyone.
I am looking forward to a great discussion!
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