Unleashing The Essence of Artificial Intelligence In Malawi

We are seeing the rise of AI globally, has Malawi positioned itself for AI? Are ready? Do we have what it takes?

Writing this article — Mugg ’n’ Bean | Lilongwe

Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence is a branch of computer science that deals with the training of computers to have human-like behavior. I remember being young and wanting to talk to computers like we do now via Voice Assistants like Google Assistant, Siri, and Alexa. It has always been an interesting invention that man has come this far. From the times that it was just a concept to where we are now that AI is becoming part and parcel of our lives. I would continue telling you more of this but I know you aren’t here for this. So I will switch things up a bit.

The Context of AI in a Third-World Country — Malawi

I am from a third-world country, Malawi. Access to technological advancements is still a challenge over here. I mean, over the years things have been improving. Would I say we are where we need to be? No. Are we positioning ourselves to be where we need to be as a country? Respect to all people, and organizations we have fighting to put ourselves where need to be but I still think we are not there yet. It is good to acknowledge the efforts being put in, at the same time we need to stop thinking in the context of a third-world country. I know that might sound so hypocritical but I mean, we really should.

It is my firm belief that technology is an essential part of our lives. I would say we need to make sure that every human being in Malawi should have some form of access to these advances. Such is not the case as of 2023 in Malawi. Technology in general is not accessible to most people in the country.

I believe that if you do not have something that you eventually plan to have in the future, then you ought to plan for it so it doesn't surprise you. While I have seen countries like Rwanda crafting policies for Artificial Intelligence, I am yet to see that in Malawi being done. I hope and believe that sooner or later we will see that happen eventually.

As many have said before, Malawi’s access to technology is delayed due to access to its enablers. I am talking about access to gadgets, especially mobile. Most people do not have access to a smartphone and I know this plays a huge huge impact on people having access to the latest advancements.

My biggest worry is that it is just a small fraction of people, especially tech people, who know or understand the latest tech trends. It is my wish that we could change this. It is one of the reasons why I thought of embarking on a community that can lead this to happen. TechMalawi was created with this view, to educate the people of Malawi about what's happening out there in tech as well as locally. I must admit, we haven’t done a great job yet, but we will(smiles, while sipping a latte 😁).

Action Points

I think we need to embrace AI in general but to get there I think we need to do a few things. Here are some of the things Malawi can do to embrace AI.

1. Access to gadgets — I know there are efforts to make sure that smartphones become a norm than a luxury. I hope with time more people will have these gadgets. Doing this will open up a whole huge market. Imagine having 75–90% of our population with access to smartphones and the internet and its services, that will really do us good.
2. Artificial Intelligence Curriculum — While AI is taught as a module in our schools, I think it needs to be broadened. Include real-world implementation. We need to make sure students can experiment and build solutions that are contextualized to our needs. A simple Google Search: “Artificial Intelligence In Malawi” yields about two solutions that were developed by students from The PolyTechnic Univesity but there are no traces of where they are right now.
   http://www.poly.ac.mw/news/artificial-intelligence-system-developed-06-08-2019 | http://www.mubas.ac.mw/news/artificial-intelligence-ai-for-data-collection-training-programme-26-04-2023
3. Policy Development — I do not have access to policy developers in Malawi, so I will assume from my limited knowledge that we do not have any AI Policies in place. Moving forward, we need to have policies in place that protect citizens from the use of personal data in training models among other things.
4. An Open Source Datahub — If you are a Malawian developer, you will relate to how hard it is to have access to locally produced data for anything. It is for this reason I, personally, have embarked on a journey to help with this. My idea is to have a data repository that exposes all public data that can be used for such purposes and more via an API. Still in its early stages but I hope to push a commit or two on free weekends.
   https://github.com/JoelFickson/NyasaDataHub is the link. Let me know if you want to collaborate.

The Essence of AI In Malawi

After all the thoughts above, I think it's time to talk about the essence of AI in Malawi. Malawi can benefit in so many ways but I will target a few things that I think speak to me more.

Agriculture:
Currently, agriculture is our main industry[correct me if I am wrong in the comments]. We are very far away from automating our agricultural production sector but I see an opportunity here. Tobacco is one of the main crops, I think we could use AI to identify diseases and anything that can impact the crop. A good example would be devices or applications that can be developed to be used by local farmers. These applications/devices can be dispatched to local advisors directly into the farms. A great candidate for doing this would be LUANAR.

Healthcare:
Our healthcare system would benefit largely from the use of AI. I know this is so generic but think about it if Kamuzu Central Hospital had a predictive analytics solution for treating Cancer? Recently, I have seen a rise in the deaths of mothers when delivering. It is an area that could have predictive capabilities with the power of data. If a pregnant woman died with similar conditions that a current woman is experiencing, we could prevent that entirely by using different methods of delivering babies altogether.

Electoral System
Of all elections that have been held in Malawi, we have heard people competing complain of fraud and all other things. While I think Blockchain Technology would be the best fit for such issues, I also think that AI can be used to detect any anomalies. AI can classify votes based on different patterns and then Blockchain technology would be used to verify the votes' authenticity.

Childrens Education
I am a strong believer in customized learning. Gone should be the days when we are static in our education systems. Children should have access to AI-based learning systems developed for them that are customized to their capabilities. I am not saying a drastic change but there should be a system for our primary education that can fit the needs of each child. This may not make sense but technology-assisted based learning has proven to be one of the best ways to teach children. Games, videos, and many more.

Anti-Corruption Strategies
Believe it or not, corruption is so rampant in this country. It is sad because it has become a norm for you to get some services, public or private. You have to cough up a few coins to get services here and there. I know most of it is due to poor setups in tracking issues and loopholes. AI can be used to identify anomalies in the government and the private sector. A system that can detect a normal spending expenditure and an abnormal one. I believe it is possible. Implementation details can vary but I believe it is something very doable.

Closing Remarks
Artificial Intelligence is an important technology and can be heavily beneficial to Malawi.

Much of AI depends on training models with vast amounts of data. Malawi’s data is mostly not digitized and that will delay the efficiency of contextualized AI advances in the country. I hope we can get to a point where data is not an issue.

Twitter Space
As am writing this, I am thinking of the Twitter Space that I am hosting under @TechMalawiHub. It is titled Artificial Intelligence In Malawi.

Link to recording:

https://twitter.com/i/spaces/1OwxWwLDYOnxQ

Please follow TechMalawiHub on Twitter.

Other Interesting Articles & Video:

1. https://medium.com/techmalawi/artificial-intelligence-for-malawi-africa-c0709d01ec23 by Chawer kamanga
2. A video I did on AI and Machine Learning — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbpfGP5sFbY