Human rights principles

Summary

This discussion focused on the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) to accelerate sustainable development and empower Africa’s youth. The panel explored how AI can be leveraged to address challenges in various sectors, including agriculture, education, and finance, while also considering the ethical implications and necessary infrastructure.

Speakers emphasized the importance of collaboration between governments, private sector companies, and youth-led startups in implementing AI-driven initiatives. They highlighted the need for policies that support AI integration into youth development programs and educational systems across Africa. The discussion also touched on the challenges of implementing digital innovation in Africa, including regulatory hurdles and the high cost of AI technology.

A key point raised was the importance of African ownership in the AI value chain, from hardware development to data ownership. Panelists stressed the need for African countries to participate beyond the service layer of AI to ensure long-term benefits and cost-effectiveness. The discussion also addressed the ethical considerations in implementing AI technology, particularly in preventing a widening digital divide.

The panel highlighted ongoing efforts to integrate AI skills into educational curricula and create platforms for young innovators to access funding and support. They emphasized the potential of AI to create job opportunities and drive economic growth in Africa, while also acknowledging the need to address potential job displacements.

Overall, the discussion underscored the transformative potential of AI for Africa’s development, while emphasizing the importance of inclusive, ethical, and collaborative approaches to its implementation. The panelists called for increased investment in AI education, infrastructure, and local innovation to ensure that Africa can fully harness the benefits of this technology.

Keypoints

Major discussion points:

– The potential of AI to accelerate progress on sustainable development and the UN Sustainable Development Goals

– The need for collaboration between governments, private sector, and other stakeholders to responsibly develop and implement AI

– Challenges around AI access, infrastructure, and skills gaps, particularly in developing countries and Africa

– Ethical considerations and risks associated with AI development and deployment

– The role of youth and innovation in driving AI adoption and solutions in Africa

The overall purpose of the discussion was to explore how AI, particularly generative AI, can be leveraged as a tool to accelerate sustainable development and empower youth in Africa, while addressing challenges and ethical concerns.

The tone of the discussion was generally optimistic and forward-looking, with speakers highlighting the transformative potential of AI. However, there was also a pragmatic acknowledgement of significant challenges that need to be overcome, particularly around access, skills, and ethical implementation. The tone became more action-oriented towards the end, with calls for concrete partnerships and initiatives to move the agenda forward.

Speakers

Speakers:

– Sanda Ojiambo – CEO and Executive Director of the UN Global Compact

– Shea Gopaul – Permanent Representative for the International Board Organization of Employers

– Chido Cleopatra Mpemba – African Union Youth Envoy

– Christopher P. Lu – Deputy Command Representative of the UN for Management Reform from the U.S. government

– Gerbrand Haverkamp – Executive Director of the World Benchmarking Alliance

– Henry Kipponen – Chief Innovation Officer from Unite AI Companies

– Dr. Jamila Bio Ibrahim – Nigeria’s Minister of Youth

– Priscilla Boa-Gue – Google’s head for pan-African institutions, government affairs and public policy

– Kolawole Olajide – CEO and co-founder of Sava (fintech company)

Moderators/Facilitators:

– Amelia (no last name given) – Moderated first panel discussion

– Farai Gundan – Moderator for second panel, inspirational youth leader at Harvard University

– Tonilyn Lim – Chief of Programs of the UN Global Conference, facilitated transitions between panels

Areas of expertise varied among speakers, covering topics such as:

– UN initiatives and global partnerships

– Business and employment

– Youth development in Africa

– AI and technology policy

– Sustainable development

– Government affairs

– Fintech and entrepreneurship

Expanded Summary of AI and Sustainable Development Discussion

This comprehensive discussion explored the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) to accelerate sustainable development and empower Africa’s youth. The panel, comprising experts from various sectors, delved into how AI can address challenges in agriculture, education, finance, and other key areas, while also considering ethical implications and necessary infrastructure.

Potential of AI for Sustainable Development

Speakers unanimously agreed on AI’s significant potential to drive progress towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Sanda Ojiambo, CEO of the UN Global Compact, emphasized that AI, particularly generative AI, can be a “true game-changer for sustainability progress”. She highlighted its ability to democratize access to information, accelerate innovation through cross-disciplinary thinking, and increase productivity. Ojiambo also discussed the UN Global Compact’s recent report on AI for sustainable development, which outlines how AI can contribute to each of the 17 SDGs and provides guidance for businesses on responsible AI implementation.

However, the discussion also acknowledged the need for a balanced perspective. Ojiambo cautioned that while AI could help solve global goals, gaps in technology access could exacerbate global inequalities. This nuanced view set the tone for a broader exploration of both opportunities and challenges.

Challenges and Risks in AI Implementation

The panel identified several significant hurdles to AI implementation in Africa:

1. Infrastructure limitations: The lack of basic infrastructure such as internet access and electricity in many areas was highlighted as a major challenge.

2. Cost barriers: Kolawole Olajide, CEO of Sava, pointed out the high costs of AI development and implementation for African startups.

3. Ethical considerations: Priscilla Boa-Gue from Google stressed the need for responsible AI principles and ethical guidelines.

4. Informal sector challenges: Dr. Jamila Bio Ibrahim, Nigeria’s Minister of Youth, discussed the difficulties of implementing AI solutions in Africa’s large informal sector, where traditional data collection and digital integration are limited.

These challenges underscored the complexity of leveraging AI for development in Africa, prompting discussions on potential solutions and strategies.

African Initiatives and Strategies

The discussion highlighted several initiatives aimed at harnessing AI for Africa’s development:

1. African Union’s AI Strategy: Chido Cleopatra Mpemba discussed the African Union’s efforts to develop a comprehensive AI strategy and policy brief to guide the continent’s approach to AI adoption and regulation.

2. Make Africa Digital Campaign: Mpemba also mentioned this initiative, which aims to promote digital literacy and skills across the continent.

3. Google’s AI Research Centers: Priscilla Boa-Gue detailed Google’s investments in AI research centers in Ghana and Kenya, focusing on developing locally relevant AI solutions and supporting African AI researchers.

4. Nigeria’s Youth Empowerment Initiatives: Dr. Jamila Bio Ibrahim outlined Nigeria’s efforts to support youth in technology and AI, including plans to integrate AI and digital skills into educational curricula and provide funding for youth-led AI initiatives.

Empowering African Youth through AI

A key focus of the discussion was how to harness AI to benefit Africa’s youth. Strategies discussed included:

1. Investing in talent development and digital skills training for youth

2. Integrating AI and digital skills into educational curricula

3. Providing funding and investment opportunities for youth-led AI initiatives

4. Creating enabling policy environments to support AI startups

Importance of Collaboration and Partnerships

Speakers consistently emphasized the crucial role of multi-stakeholder collaboration in effectively developing and implementing AI technologies. Ojiambo called for partnerships between governments, private sector, and civil society. Boa-Gue highlighted the potential of collaborations between tech companies and African institutions to develop localized AI solutions. Olajide stressed the importance of cooperation between youth-led startups, established businesses, and governments.

African Ownership in the AI Value Chain

Kolawole Olajide raised a thought-provoking point about the need for African countries to participate beyond the service layer of AI: “If as a continent, we only participate in that service layer, we have a big problem in the long-term. We will continue to, it will be very expensive for us.” This insight highlighted the importance of building local AI capabilities and infrastructure in Africa, including manufacturing and hardware development.

Ethical Considerations and Governance

The panel addressed the importance of ethical AI development and deployment. Gerbrand Haverkamp, Executive Director of the World Benchmarking Alliance, emphasized the role of international bodies like the UN in AI governance, stating, “If we do not do it here in the UN, it will either be decided in the US, in Europe, or in China, and then we know which other countries will not be at the table.” This comment led to discussions on the need for inclusive global governance structures for AI.

Unresolved Issues and Future Considerations

Despite the productive discussion, several issues remained unresolved, including:

1. Ensuring AI benefits reach rural and marginalized communities

2. Ownership and control of African data used to develop AI systems

3. Increasing African participation in hardware development and other parts of the AI value chain

4. Balancing innovation with ethical concerns and responsible AI development

The discussion also touched on the upcoming UN Summit of the Future, which will focus on youth engagement and the role of emerging technologies in shaping global futures.

In conclusion, the discussion underscored the transformative potential of AI for Africa’s development, while emphasizing the importance of inclusive, ethical, and collaborative approaches to its implementation. The panelists called for increased investment in AI education, infrastructure, and local innovation to ensure that Africa can fully harness the benefits of this technology, while also addressing the significant challenges and ethical considerations that lie ahead.

A notable contribution came from a young Indian speaker who mentioned writing an AI book for African children, highlighting the growing global interest in promoting AI education for youth across continents.

Sanda Ojiambo: Good afternoon, everybody, and thank you so much for making the time to be here. My name is Sanda Ojiambo. I’m the CEO and Executive Director of the UN Global Contact. It’s really great to welcome you to our offices. First, I just want to say sincere apologies. I know we’ve had to make some changes on venue. On the positive side, we’re now being streamed live on UN Web TV, so we do have a much larger and global following, which I think is great for the opportunity that we have. But just to say, yes, the negotiations for the pact for the future, which will be central to the summit of the future, happened to be, should I say, protracted. And so essentially, most available space, there was a request to avail space so that member states or governments could conclude this piece of negotiation and discussion. So thank you for being accommodating. I know we’re all here to rally behind the pact and what we want to achieve for the summit of the future, which includes a lot of the important work that we want to do around technology and AI. So thank you for accommodating that. I know a few of our guests are on the way. They had engagements at the United Nations, so they need to make their way over here. But we will certainly kick off. I will just make some comments to start. I know there’s a lot that we want to talk about. This has been a really exciting report that we’ve been able to compile with our partners and really marks, I think, for the Global Compact, a great launchpad into looking at the world of Gen AI for the global goals. I want to first just thank the African Union Office of the Youth Envoy. I know she’s on the way. She was a dear friend, a strong advocate for everything future looking and a great youth envoy. So I appreciate her and her effort. I know colleagues from her office are here. I’d also like to thank the International Organization of Employees. Who’s also a great friend and strong advocate for private sector and all the transformative work that it does in all of its phases. Your collaboration has allowed us to drive this conversation forward. So thank you very much. Cleo and Shiv for your support on this. The Summit and indeed the Pact of the Future, we will see by the end of the week, put a strong focus on young people. There’s a declaration by the youth that will come out and it’s really the opportunity to look at new solutions, chart a new vision of what the world can look like after these four years that have been particularly hard from an economic perspective, a social perspective and certainly in terms of governance and society functioning. So the Summit and the Pact call us to imagine a new future that is really grounded in multilateralism, that has strong global governance underpinning it, that embraces the global digital compact that I’m sure you’ll hear about over the next couple of days and certainly has young people and driving forward the sustainable development goals. And so then therefore technology and AI is so central to making sure that we can get there because as we reflected on last year at this time, as you know, we’re so far behind on where we need to be with the global goals. Business is uniquely positioned to drive this forward as we know. Business was called to the table in 2015 when the goals were being designed to look at the goals of a strong investment opportunity, an opportunity not only to bridge markets but really to bridge the gaps that exist between communities, people, societies and the world. So business still remains core to the work that we need to do for the remaining years till 2030. Gen AI gives us the opportunity to crunch large data sets, to find the insights that we need and to truly deliver the solutions to move the goals forward. We interviewed about 30 executives to put this report together and all of them recognized the capacity and the potentials for Gen AI to truly transform industry and what we need to do. A larger survey of about 1,600 CEOs revealed that 75% of those companies, admittedly large companies, are in the process of embedding AI into their work and their strategies. According to this new report, and thank you to Accenture, our partners, for working with us on this, Gen AI can be a true game-changer for sustainability progress because it will democratize access to information, it will accelerate innovation through the solutions, through cross-disciplinary thinking, and certainly by increasing productivity. Schools can help navigate complex and sustainable development problems, such as circular business, more productive supply chains, and I’m truly wishing I had Gen AI when I was in school. I’m told it solves a lot of the challenges I face trying to do my homework and my assignments. But imagine Gen AI combined with robotics and what the future would look like for many. I come from Kenya, the African continent, often referred, Kenyan specifically, no offense to the other African world, the Silicon Savannah, sometimes called the hotbed of innovation. You know, what do we need? We need scale, we need technology, we need access to crunch those data sets and make solutions that make sense, not only for those small startup entrepreneurs, but for the big issues that a lot of the developing and the emerging world needs to solve. At best, AI will help us solve the global goals, and that’s really important, but we must take a reality check because we realize that gaps in technology are really what keeps the world separate. On the one hand, we’re moving forward with large language models. On the other hand, the people who still don’t have access to connectivity can’t afford it or simply are still working using a feature phone. So, you know, there’s a lot of work that will go on around looking at what Gen AI can and should look like, how we bridge those technology gaps from a policy perspective, from an infrastructure perspective, from a device perspective, from a content perspective, from a pricing perspective. So much work to be done, even while we accelerate forward on this. Additionally, and under that, we need to look at issues such as rights, bias, ethics, complex areas because we’re really charting uncharted waters. Lots of work going on on this. Allow me to just mention the Secretary General’s high level advisory body on technology and AI that is doing some groundbreaking work on supporting efforts. and discussions on global governance, very important. Regional efforts are also key. We will hear from the African Union about how it’s building a vibrant and inclusive AI startup ecosystem. We must look at each region’s priorities and needs. Technology is not applied agnostically or across many different infrastructure and policy areas as well. This report, as you’ll see, will outline tangible actions to help companies use technology as it should and for the global goals. Companies, as we always say in the Global Compact, must work in partnership with governments, with civil society, with communities, empower young people, empower SMEs, empower innovators to really drive technology forward. Gen AI is already shaping the global landscape. Every day, I sense something new and really wonder where the future may lie. It’s really interesting that we’re here gathering the summit of the future, where we can really look at what a combined future for the world can look like. So really important. So I just want to say thank you so much to all those who helped put the report together. Many from my team here, who I know thoroughly enjoyed the exercise. I enjoyed reading the report, debating about some of the critical issues that were in there. And we’re very hopeful that this report will provide value, not just for Global Compact members, for anybody in the private sector and our broad stakeholder ecosystem, who’s really looking to see how we can get to 2030 and really deliver on the Sustainable Development Goal. So thank you so much to all of you for coming. I know we have a few people walking in also. They come over from the UN office, but welcome and we really look forward to an energizing discussion. Thank you.

Moderator: Great. Thank you, Sanda. I think we can hand it to Shea. Yeah. Great.

Shea Gopaul: So thank you, Sanda. And like Sandra, I’d like to thank the African Union, as well as Global Compact. is a co-sponsor with us today. My name is Shea Gopaul, I’m the permanent rep for the International Board Organization of Employers. For those of you that don’t know us, we are an organization representing 50 million companies with our employers federations and our members in over 150 different countries. We focus on social employment issues from policy to advocacy, to really capacity building at country level. So we too undertook a study with Deloitte and looking at G20 countries where we looked at their AI readiness and how prepared are countries as we embark on this new world of AI. And while there’s a dual nature to AI and its impact on the labor market and society, obviously there are some very positive significant points in particularly productivity and efficiency gains, but there’s also an awful lot and people are very worried about is job displacements and social disparities. The recent IMF report has said that AI will affect 40% of jobs around the world, but in advanced economies where we’re moving so quickly on this, it could be actively 60%. Now there will be job losses, but there will be job gains. And I think there’s some really interesting numbers, but they’re not all saying the same thing. If you look at MIT, some of the numbers are a bit alarming because they’re using also historical data. You have the ILO coming out, the West says 14 million jobs could be lost, that’s 2%. Whereas the OECD is saying, no, let’s look at this, it could be more positive. No matter what is happening in the AI world, there will be job loss and people need to be trained and retrained into these new positions. Women in particular are being very affected by this. And the first round, particularly in gen AI, is a lot of the administrative positions which are being taken by many women. And unfortunately, some of those are the jobs where they need to be re-skilled immediately so that they can move in and fit into other jobs. But women also have a disadvantage. And if you look at the statistics, they are not as much in STEM education. They’re at a disadvantage, and therefore men are much more educated and trained, and they will be able to move forward. But AI will not take your job away, but the person with AI skills will. So there are a lot of gains in productivity, as I said, and particularly in sectors like manufacturing, logistics, and healthcare, we see a lot of tasks being automated. And there is an increase in productivity, particularly, as I said, in these advanced economies. Routine tasks are being removed, and then people are being able to spend more time on creativity, strategic work, and overall productivity. So in general, in G20 countries, they all say that they’re well-prepared and positioning themselves for AI. And there are many opportunities, and they are all, however, at very different stages. Everyone says that they’re looking at a strategy, and they have actually set up ministries and groups that are really looking at AI governance and all the other issues around it. But as Sandra said, the current digital infrastructure is very serious. And while we’re talking about this and saying it’s so great in many advanced economies, you shouldn’t forget that 33% of the world is without access so you’re not gonna be using generative AI. There are various forms and levels of investment. AI takes investment and particularly private investment. And that’s where it’s very unevenly distributed. 81% of the private investment in AI is in two countries and that’s China and the US. That means that there are a lot of countries that don’t have the resources. And so therefore there’s a push by governments to be putting more of public funds into this. The skills gap is very serious, but most importantly there’s something called the skills mismatch. Particularly in South Africa, Brazil and Mexico, they have the largest skills mismatch. And this could cause some serious problems because young people who are educated and want to work but do not have the skills for a job that can cause very serious frustrations and eventually unrest, which is what we saw a lot in 2012 when we had a lot of the youth unemployment problems we’re dealing with. But also the IMF looked at several factors when you’re looking at readiness. And there’s things like doing business in a country, the startup environment, the human capital, again, investment. But there are common efforts across countries and everyone recognizes its importance. However, the infrastructure development is recognized as being serious. Digital infrastructure is the cornerstone. However, they are all putting prioritization on high-speed internet, cloud computing, advanced technologies in order to be able to integrate their AI. Workforce development and skills enhancement is a very serious issue and they’re trying to tackle it and R&D becomes very important in these G20 countries. However, there are some serious issues and I’m going to point to a few of them which I sort of raised. But there needs to be an equitable distribution of the AI benefits. And this is where there’s really serious concern. Because many countries are not ready with the infrastructure, and this is really going to cause even worse income inequalities. Private sector and public sector must come together on this to become a leader in AI. They’re working on workforce development, but they’re also looking at AI integration into the economy. The skills gap, I said, is huge, the mismatch, but we do see that a lot of countries are very quickly taking on targeted programs and efforts, and private sector is assisting with this in modernizing the educational curricula. And for instance, Brazil has a strategy right now where they’re putting a strong AI workforce development together with financial resources, scholarships, and AI degrees. But there needs to be the balance between innovation and ethical concerns. Strategies should really adapt to the address of emerging ethical concerns, such as algorithms and the implication of AI on privacy. So just to conclude, we have the study, it’s out there, lots is happening, but we need to share. Those that are at the advantage and those who are doing well really need to share with others to bring everyone up to the same level. To conclude, we need a human-centric approach, where we consider the workplace, education, misinformation, and ethics are absolutely critical for any strategy. We know we can’t do it alone, and we know that many could be left behind even more. The Global Compact Study is great because we know that we can achieve great outcomes in their examples, but we also know that we can’t do it alone, and we know that many could be left behind even more. of coming together, but we need to share, complement, and work in partnership. So, thank you.

Sanda Ojiambo: I just have an additional job with the MC, but allow me to welcome the delegates from the African Union. Welcome. I know you had to do a walk-off. Sincere apologies for the change of venue. Thank you for being accommodating. We kicked off the program. I provided my remarks. My dear colleague shared spoken from the international organization before us. So, if you’re ready, we’d very much welcome your remarks from the African Union and the President, Madam, the youth envoy. Thank you very much. Would you like to come up front?

Chido Cleopatra Mpemba: Thank you, everyone. First of all, my apologies for being late. This is my fifth event for the day. There’s one more to go. So, I’ve just come from the UN, where we’re closing an event on gender equality for young girls and adolescents. As you’re aware that today’s also the UN Summit of the Future Youth Action Day, but I’m happy to be here. First of all, to my sister, Sanda. Thank you for doing this in collaboration with the African Union, the Minister of Youth for Nigeria, the Minister of Youth Development for Nigeria, my dear sister, Dr. Jamila. Everyone, thank you for being with us today, and I see a lot of familiar faces that we have in the room, young professionals like Kola, like Melvin, just to name a few that have joined us here today. I’m going to speak mostly about the work in the Office of the Youth Envoy, and the reason I’m going to mention this is because knowing that UN Global Contact works with the private sector, I think it’s important that we raise the best practices of the private sector working with young people in Africa. So at the African Union with the Digital Transformation Strategy, and within this, the Office of the Youth UNWRADE launched a campaign, which is the Make Africa Digital campaign. This campaign is in partnership with Google and AfriZim Bank, and we also have the support from UN Global Compact in launching a policy brief. We’ve taken this campaign to seven countries with the partnership of the private sector because we believe it’s important that we have a digital literate, you know, future generation. So, you know, we’ve been going across the continent, partnering with local tech hubs and ensuring that young people get to learn about digital literacy and we prepare them for the future of work. But not only that, we realized when we went about this campaign, that some of the communities that we visited, for example, when we were in Ghana, we’re in a community just far up from Accra. And, you know, some of the people raised a concern when we’d gone there for the training and they said, actually, you’re here to train us, but we don’t have the digital access. So you might come and talk about digital literacy, but we don’t have the technology. And as a result, we then decided to actually start having consultations with young people in different communities to say, this is actually working. What more would you like within the context of Africa and the support from the private sector and the African Union? Because we all know that AI is a new thing, right? It’s a new buzz. Recently, the African Union actually launched an AI strategy, which was adopted by our member states at the AU Head of State Assembly in June. We know that the UN is also launching an AI strategy. I’m not sure if it’s been launched and it’s coming up very soon. And as a result, we came up with this policy brief. The policy brief is on AI and user sustainability in Africa. And we’re really excited for, you know, different stakeholders to get to appreciate this policy brief from the private sector to the member states and the governments. and ensuring that we do better really for African youth. When we talk to the youth in Africa, what comes up the most is unemployment is such an issue. A lot of young people are unemployed and we need to address that. We can address that through education, through working with the private sector as well, but we can also address this by raising entrepreneurs. How can we ensure that we capacitate our young people? How do we ensure that we raise funding for young people? Because it’s one thing if we capacitate them and if we train them, and there’s no funding, to further accelerate the initiative. So I think that’s what I would like to leave in the room. I hope my team will pardon me because I didn’t get a chance to read all their hard work and their research in this, but appreciating, and acknowledging my team really. I’m here with a delegation of a women-led delegation from across the continent that are here with me today from Cameroon. We have a delegation from Zimbabwe, Nigeria. We have a delegation from Mali. We have a delegation of young women that are with me in this room. And the reason I’m not missing it is because in as much as we talk about youth representation, it’s also important that we include those that are marginalized. And often the young women are marginalized. So let us also think about that. If we talk about AI, we talk about young people, but let us not forget the marginalized, the people in non-urban areas, that are often left behind. I was literally in the session I was in just now at the U.S. and I was just raising awareness of a statistic on young girls that are out of school compared to the ratio to boys. And it’s quite huge. The gap is quite huge in Africa. We need to do something about that. But in closing, just to appreciate everyone’s here and I’m looking forward to the discussions that will be ongoing in this room and for everyone to further contribute really in building and developing the Africa that we want and meeting the SDG goals, but also the Agenda 2063. So thank you very much.

Sanda Ojiambo: Thank you so much Chido, really for your leadership and as you said, bringing forward that generation of both, you know, marginalized young people as well as women and everything that is so important for the world that we live in. You don’t have a t-shirt. Thank you. You’re absolutely welcome. It’s good to have you here and sincere apologies, you might know more about the levels of negotiation that are going on within the United Nations. So please accept our apologies to everybody, once again, having to make a very last minute change of venue. As I mentioned before, here on The Positive, we’re now being streamed live on UN Web TV, so we are, you know, globally visible, but more importantly, I think it’s just great to be able to have this discussion as we continue to stream in. I just want to say a special welcome to the Ambassador. Thank you so much for all of your support in all that we do. I know we move on to an interactive panel and they’ve put these painfully high seats for all of you. But lovely to be able to welcome the panel and have you up here for this interactive panel. Allow me also to recognize, indeed, the Minister for Youth from Nigeria. Madam, thank you so much for joining us and all of our special guests who are making the time to come over. I’d love to be able to introduce the panel. The other Ambassador, Christopher Lu, is the Deputy Command Representative of the UN for Management Reform from the U.S. government. We have Gerbrand Haverkamp, the Executive Director of the World Benchmarking Alliance, to be here. And certainly Henry Kipponen, the Chief Innovation Officer from Unite AI Companies. Please, you are all welcome to join. And I’ll be moderated by Amelia. And we have moderation from Amelia.

Amelia: Thank you. I know there’s a little bit of shuffling, so I’ll let everyone find their seats. All right. Thank you all so much for joining us, and thank you to all the wonderful speakers for being here. And thank you all for joining me. I’m excited to have you all here. As we discussed, we are at a crossroads. As I discussed, we are at a crossroads. On the one hand, we are desperately behind where we need to be when it comes to the SDGs, with only 17% on-track spending. And on the other hand, as we discussed, we have exciting, amazing technology, such as Gen-AI, that can help accelerate the progress that we need, that can help close some of the gaps and really get us to where we need to be by 2030. Please speak up. Oh, I apologize here. I will try. As I said, we’re at a crossroads where we need to, on the one hand, accelerate our progress on the SDGs, and look at really taking advantage of the tools at our disposal, such as Gen-AI. Can you all hear me now? I’ll try and project more. So I’m really excited to have our three panels today, where we’re going to be talking about different perspectives, from government to private sector, on how Gen-AI can really be used to accelerate sustainable development and accelerate the global goals. And for those who might be interested, there are reports and postcards outside to read more. But during this panel, I really want to touch on three things. The first is innovation, the excitement around Gen-AI, really expanding on what Sanda already talked about at the beginning of the opening session. The second is some of the risks that Sherry touched on, from employment to misinformation to bias and more. And the third is the real importance of collaboration. When it comes to both enabling that acceleration, but also mitigating and managing those risks. I’d love to start off with innovation. So, we all know that, I’m sorry, I’m going to turn my back to you now, so we all know that several companies around the world have really made commitments when it comes to sustainability. Yet they’re facing headwinds, the geopolitical conflict, to the economy, and more. So, I’m curious, from your perspective, how can GEN-AI be used as a tool to really help accelerate some of this, to help overcome the challenges and accelerate some sustainability progress? I’ll open up with Henry.

Henry Kipponen: Yeah, so there are many cases, and we’ve heard here that AI is a new thing. I think I founded my first AI company in 2012 or 2013, so from that moment, it was pretty clear where things are going. So, for example, the private sector hasn’t done a very good job of implementing that, neither has the governments. And so, there are many things, for example, starting from precision farming, that’s a very obvious case. Then there are, for example, in construction, what you can do with algorithmic planning is to, for example, create structures that are as strong as done by using a lot of material like concrete and metals, but you can chip away some of the materials in those uses. You can reduce food waste, for example, by predicting the demand, and we’re not doing that currently. Like, 50% of everything that comes from farms goes to trashcans somewhere, and it doesn’t make any sense. Also, there are some other things that, for example, people usually tend to think that if algorithms make decisions based on, for example, who is hired where, then it’s always biased. But that’s just like, that’s humans who are doing the bias in that. So they are now like, understanding how to build the data sets. Because I mean, it’s about the data sets and how the algorithm works. But I would assume that if we would do that, for example, like, like, we would like make algorithms make all those decisions, for example, for jobs, then we would audit them. Everyone who’s the decision didn’t like the decision might ask from the corporation or whoever, and ask to show that how did the algorithm work. And that would actually create transparency. But those are like very obvious use cases. And we don’t need any technology. Technology was there like 10 years ago for doing that. But we just don’t have the way to do that.

Amelia: I think we all know that sometimes there’s a gap between having a tool and actually implementing it for good. But I do like the example of really taking away that bias and implementing more transparency. That brings me to the next one. From benchmarking perspective, that is a lot of essentially enabling transparency on the action that companies are taking. Will Jen and I be able to help with that transparency? How are you thinking about evaluating companies more?

Gerbrand Haverkamp: Yeah, so first, we look at the world’s 2000 most influential companies from a perspective of the Sustainable Development Goals. So what can these companies do to make sure that we achieve the SDGs? And I don’t want to be the parsley pooper here. But I’m going to be anyway a little bit. There is a lot of excitement. But if you look at what companies are actually doing, that’s what we know from benchmarking is they’re falling massively behind. And so I can be excited about precision agriculture. But I’m going to be excited when it’s in the hand of smallholder farmers, because that’s what is going to make a difference. And this is where we constantly see those challenges. So I am and I want to be and I am excited about new technologies. But it’s always a question about how do we make that available? Because right now, it’s quite what it is. something simple as internet access is a reflection of inequality, but it also widens inequality if we don’t fix it. I think for us as an organization, like we, so therefore we are constantly interested in how can we measure the impact that companies have on people and planets. And whilst these companies operate in a world of big data, when it comes to the data on their actual impact, we have mainly data gaps. So I’m really, really interested in, I think someone made a joke about data centers, right? There’s not a lot of data about data centers and their energy use, et cetera. So these are sort of the discrepancies that we need to start fixing. Like how do we actually start to deploy these solutions to get clarity and data on issues where we now don’t have sight? So I hope for us as an organization, that also means technological development in terms of how do we then utilize that? We’re an NGO, so we’re not the best at that kind of stuff, but we need to figure it out and how do we work with that? But I think that’s, for me, it’s really the critical bit, like how, with every new wave of technology, how are we going to make it accessible?

Amelia: I think absolutely we’ve touched on themes of accessibility and that is critical. I’m curious, Ambassador Lu, from the standpoint of both it being a innovative, nascent technology, but also having these issues of accessibility, et cetera, what’s the perspective of governments to be able to make it accessible to the people?

Christopher P. Lu: Yeah, I mean, look, AI is new, but it’s actually really not that new. I mean, we’ve been having this conversation for the last two years since the advent of chat GPT, but AI goes way before that. Every time you go online and you do a search and it suggests something to you, that’s AI. Every time you go on Google Maps to try to figure out how long it’s going to take you, that’s AI. I think the difference is the power and what it can do. And I think the challenge that governments have is how do we ensure that these benefits flow to everyone while mitigating the risks? And we know about some of the risks, this information. I think in some ways, the greatest risk that we face is that the benefits don’t flow to everybody and that it has the potential to both decrease inequality, but widen inequality. there’s a major capacity challenge right now. I mean, AI is like a very fancy sports car and a lot of countries don’t even have paved roads. So the question is, how do you connect people to the internet? How do you even give them reliable electricity so they can connect to the internet? So that’s kind of one challenge, but then it’s also understanding that countries don’t need to have the capability, particularly in the developing world to develop AI. They just need to be able to take advantage of it. So when you’ve got AI tools that help, you know, farmers better grow crops or that can predict floods or that can assess the credit worthiness for microloans, all of that can help the developing world. We just need to get those tools into the hands of people. And often you could do that through a smartphone connection. And so this is something we in the U.S. government have been thinking a lot about. The challenge that I think for the perspective of the U.S. is we often think about these as problems that governments can solve. And yes, governments have capacity to solve them. Truthfully, these will ultimately be solved by the private sector. The private sector and U.S. tech companies, European tech companies, will have the ability to lay the cable that will connect people to the internet and will provide the skilling. Government can provide an impetus to this, but government alone can’t solve it, nor can the U.N. solve this problem.

Amelia: Absolutely, and that actually takes us to the topic of collaboration. Because we do think, as you mentioned, Ambassador Liu, that collaboration is the key between the private sector and government to be able to really utilize the technology, the skills, the finances at our fingertips to be able to implement that change. So I’m sure it’s a big thing about collaboration from initially the private sector. What more would you both like to see from global cross-sector partnerships? How can we help close that gap in terms of access, in terms of potential employment changes, et cetera?

Henry Kipponen: Well, what I see is like, I look at it from the perspective of innovation. It’s something that’s like… This technological change is huge because now it’s democratized. So basically, anyone can create, for example, a learning algorithm using Gen AI and large language models and code that, for example. But unless you have access to the Internet, if you don’t have the devices, it doesn’t make any sense. But again, I’m a little bit skeptical about organizations or governments deciding on what to innovate, because we just don’t know. And this is where young people and this collaboration comes in, because I mean, this is the most important part. What I think is that since the future is not created, maybe we want to include all of those people who will be living this planet after, for example, I’m born. I’m young in Europe, by the way. European youth convoy looks like this. That’s how it is. But again, I think that is the part that when we’re trying to direct innovation to somewhere, it goes usually wrong, and especially with new technologies. We must create the platform, have the resources, as has been said here, have the access for that. And then, for example, funding it in a way that maybe there are some projects that the who gives the money decides what to do. But like it’s done in research that like you just give money to people who have some ideas and some of them might be groundbreaking, which are solving actual problems. But I’m very interested in about this point of like, in 2015 happened a big thing when Google democratized some of the tools, that was a huge thing that happened. And now it’s democratized for like all who have the access to the Internet and for these devices. And that, for me, is a creative revolution. And especially when people who have not been taken away from taking part of some of the things get access to that, then we’re going to see change. But it’s not going to be the change that we’re now protecting. It is going to be something totally different. And I’m just like hoping that it will be the sort of like the good people now doing it because, I mean, there are so many bad uses for AI and usually it’s the bad people who like take it first and do it to, for example, like reduce trust between people. So we have a crisis of democracy and we’ve seen that happening already. So now it’s the for the good people time to like move in.

Gerbrand Haverkamp: I think it’s, of course, absolutely right that it’s ultimately companies that deliver and I would not want to make any suggestions to change that. But I think if there’s one role for the UN, it is to spell out what the responsibility of business is when it comes to the deployment of technology. And because once we have clear norms and guidance, within parameters, we actually want to deploy this technology, we want to develop it. That’s different from saying what to develop, but it is giving the guardrails for how we do it. And the UN has done it before, right, with the UN Guiding Principles for Business and Human Rights. It sets out principles within business, which business can operate. And I think there’s now an opportunity, starting with the Global Digital Compact, to spell out for nations, and therefore for companies, what the ethical principles are that we want to apply when developing and deploying these new technologies. And I think the UN is really the only place where that can be done. Because if we do not do it here in the UN, it will either be decided in the US, in Europe, or in China, and then we know which other countries will not be at the table. So if we really want, if we’re talking about inclusivity, and we want this to be available for all, then we need to be able to set the norms and standards and parameters at a place and the UN is the only place where that can be done. Because otherwise, it will be set by the world’s biggest economies, or the world’s biggest economies will choose not to do it. And therefore, I think it’s really, really unique not to undermine that position of the UN, because the UN is the only place that has the legitimacy to do that. So if there’s one thing that I hope will come out of this Global Digital Compact, is articulation of what the responsibility of business is. That’s very different from saying what business should be doing, but it’s saying within these parameters is how we’re going to work. And we’ve done it before with human rights, and I think we have an opportunity to do it now as well for the generative AI and other new technologies.

Amelia: Absolutely. What are those ethical principles and frameworks that we need to be thinking about? Anything to add?

Christopher P. Lu: Yeah, it’s actually one of the reasons why we in the US led the effort on the first ever UN resolution on AI that passed in March. And it was to begin to set out some of these rules of the road for how AI should be operated and governed and how it should be developed. And I mean, the miraculous aspect of this is that we were able to get 193 countries to agree with this, even though, candidly, there’s only a couple dozen that have the capability of actually meaningfully developing AI. But it was essentially to start putting down some basic rules of the road that countries could adopt if they adopt their own regulatory scheme. And obviously, the US scheme is much different than the Chinese scheme, which is much different than the EU scheme. But there’s a basic set of principles that should guide it. And I do agree with the both panels. The UN has an important role in this. But what’s important to understand is that the importance of bringing every stakeholder to the table. And that’s a point of distinction within the UN. There are countries right now who do think the only people that should discuss AI are country to country conversations. And I think that’s short-sighted. I mean, other than China right now, if you look at the other major countries that are developing AI, the vast majority of the investments in AI are happening in the private sector. These are not government-funded investments. They’re private sector investments. So not to include those companies in the conversation leaves it both player, frankly, not including civil society NGOs, who can be the important check to ensure that human rights and civil liberties are all being protected. That’s an oversight as well. So those are some of the broad guiding principles of how we’ve tried to negotiate global digital compact.

Amelia: Thank you. I’m going to wrap up with one final quick question before we get applauded off the stage. I think it’s very exciting to hear about what we need coming out. Just very curiously, what, if I may ask you each, what do you find most exciting in the next five to 10 years about the potential of Gen AI to unlock sustainable development? what’s the one thing that you’re most excited about? And I’ll start, and that’s early.

Christopher P. Lu: I mean, it’s, I’m not even trying. I mean, you know, when you look at breast cancer detection, education, skilling, agriculture, I mean, sustainability, it’s all really exciting. And yet, we know what the risks are. And so I think that balance of how we get the benefits and mitigates them, the risk is both exciting and scary. I know that’s not an answer, but that’s about it.

Henry Kipponen: There are many interesting venues with that, but I’m still wondering all the time, the food waste part, because that doesn’t make any sense to anyone. Because our food system is not producing money for anyone. So it doesn’t make sense in that. And then we’re wasting resources, and people are starving, and that kind of stuff. And I think that would be at least partially solvable with AI technologies. And it’s not like DNA and AI, it’s like some of the basic machine learning algorithms that can do that too.

Amelia: Yeah, addressing that, I believe 40% of food waste, that doesn’t even help feed the population. Yeah. Absolutely.

Gerbrand Haverkamp: I hope climate change, my hope is on climate change. I mean, generally, AI will contribute hugely to the energy, but it will try to deal with its own problem. And in dealing with that, I hope it gets some breakthroughs on climate change.

Amelia: That’d be very exciting. Well, I would like to invite you all to thank your panelists.

Tonilyn Lim: Good afternoon, I’m Tonilyn Lim, Chief of Programs of the UN Global Conference. I’m not Sanda’s AI. I’m taking over. She has to go to another meeting. But anyway, I’d like to thank the panel who really gave us a very rich explanation. of the possibilities in many applications, the role of the private sector in providing infrastructure, skills development and support of the public sector’s initiatives, as well as how to get technology more accessible, especially to farmers, SMEs, small businesses and individuals as such, and the role of the UN in providing the guardrails and also partnerships on the ground as countries continue to develop their own regulations and how private sector can also support in that undertaking and all the other sectors of society. So we’ll now go on to the second panel. It will be an interactive dialogue on also empowering Africa’s future, AI as a catalyst for youth development. So I’d like to call on the moderator, Farai Gundan, from the inspirational youth leader at Harvard University. All right, thank you. And maybe also call to the stage now our other panelists from Bren Chiliabogwe, head of Pan-African institutions, government institutions and public policy of Google, Kolawole Olajide, CEO and co-founder of Sava, and Rodney Njika, UNESCO liaison head to the United Nations Economic Commission in Africa.

Farai Gundan: Sorry, the Honorable Minister of Youth from Nigeria will be joining us.

Tonilyn Lim: Okay, thank you. Honorable Minister, may we also invite you to the stage? Thank you.

Farai Gundan: Thank you so much. Good afternoon to all the parties in the room and the minister made some way to the chairs here. All protocol observed. I’m honored to be here today. I must say getting everyone in the room in one place is almost as rare as catching a New York cab during rush hour. So that was actually me going to AI to ask, okay, give me a joke that will fit this room. Africa boasts the youngest population in the world with over 60% of its population under the age of 25. So to the gentleman who said. and that’s European, this is Africa’s youth here. This is how young we look and how young we are. This dynamic youth demographic holds immense potential as a driving force for innovations, economic growth and social change. With proper investment in education, skills development and entrepreneurship, Africa’s youth could transform the continent into a global leader in technology, sustainable development, creative industries and unleashing the best energy and talent of its next generation. And no, that wasn’t AI, that came from my heart. This panel, Empowering Africa’s Youth, AI as a Catalyst for Youth Development, seeks to amplify our voices, the voice and role of youth, business, government as ethical stewards of AI development and guide the private sector as we make advances with Gen AI. Against the backdrop of the policy brief that was mentioned earlier, Artificial Intelligence for Sustainable Youth Development in Africa, a multi-stakeholder collaboration including member states and the private sector. A sheet has gone around the room with a QR code for the link to the policy brief. I’m hoping we’ve all had a chance to actually scan it. So I’ll give a moment to figure out where the sheet is. It’s important that we actually scan and have access to this policy brief. I do want to congratulate you, Chido and Sandra in her absence and your various teams as well as your partners in the role and the work that you have done in putting together this policy brief. So can we just put our hands together for the equity? I certainly look forward to digging into it and sharing with my network. And I challenge all of us in the room to do the same. Now that is out of the way, I’m honored to introduce a very representative panel that reflects the promise and the potential of Africa. Her Excellency, Dr. Jamila Ibrahim, who’s a Nigerian medical doctor, development specialist and politician, currently serving as Nigeria’s minister of youth. She was appointed to the minister, to the position by President Bula to be in September, 2023. So please help me welcome your honours. To her right is Priscilla Boa-Gue. She currently serves as Google’s head for pan-African institutions, government affairs and public policy, where she oversees policy engagement with the African Union Commission, EU Economic Commission for Africa, African Development Bank, amongst other regional organizations. And then, right next to me is a fellow entrepreneur. It turns out that Paula and I are both Spintech founders and he is co-founder and CEO of Saba, and he has co-founded Bridge Labs, driven by his passion for creating high-quality tech solutions that empower organizations to excel in the modern era, while providing employment for young professionals across the continent. I’m so delighted to have this amazing panel and we’re going to be discussing, the title of our panel is, again, Empowering Africa’s Future, AI as a Catalyst for Youth Development. And I’m going to start with the minister herself. I know you’re new to the role. A significant portion of Africa’s youth is employed in the informal sector. How can AI be leveraged to support youth working in the sector? And what steps are actually being taken to formalize and optimize their contributions towards technology? And I want to also reflect on the ambassador. You mentioned that the fundamentals have to be in place for us to take advantage of AI, particularly on the continent. So I would love to hear your views on. on what, how can we leverage our AI, given the backdrop of no power in some instances, no water, and the infrastructure needs to be expanded.

Jamila Bio Ibrahim: Thank you. Thank you very much for having me on the panel. Well, looking at the infrastructure gaps in Africa and in Nigeria in context, we’re in the process of speaking, I’ll just speak in the context of what the Nigerian government is doing. We’re very committed to investing in young people. And of course, speaking out on talents, because we reflect, you know, from the recent past, most of the tech, we have about six of the tech influence that emerged from Africa are actually Nigerians. We have the founders of, the founder of Andela, Flutterwave, which is a fintech company, I’m sure you’re familiar with. We have this talents that are yet untapped, and we’re very aware of that. And we’re working very hard to ensure that we invest in these talents, regardless of the infrastructure gaps. And we’re also, in our part, at the Ministry of Youth Development, we’re tasked with the responsibility to ensure that we create a new environment for young people to thrive. And education, intelligence, and of course, the digital technology space, even though we have a Ministry of Digital Communications and Digital Technology, this ministry drives the policy of, you know, technology and digital communications. However, as a ministry of youth, we have a very robust collaboration. to ensure that we have this, we really identify young people and because we are the first point of contrast between young people and governments, right, and leveraging on a fund that we supervise or we superintend, the Mutual Investment Fund, which is about 17 million U.S. dollars, equivalent that has been approved by the Federal Executive Council to ensure that we empower or rather invest in young people across various sectors, including sectors that were earlier mentioned, the green and green economy and agriculture space. Of course, for us as well, we have an emerging space for that, for the view economy, right, and for extractive as well. And I was very excited when the previous panelists mentioned the deployment of technology to address waste and of course, when they mentioned agriculture. So, the Mutual Investment Fund is, we hope to empower young people in various sectors, including agriculture. And looking at agriculture alone and seeing that reference was made particularly to agriculture and how we can use young people’s creativity to create solutions in that space. And I believe that with efficient intentions and digital technology improvement in digital technology, we will be able to achieve a lot if we are leveraging on agriculture alone, which is our lowest-priority food experience for income from Nigeria. So, beyond that, we really want to invest in young people who are doing remarkable, you know, things in this space. And as a ministry, we’re also in the process of design or rehabilitating our youth development centres and making them up to standard, where we have various devices and all that young people require to, you know, design. softwares and just to create, basically to be digitally creative and as a matter of fact, we’re also going down to the grassroots to ensure that we’re very inclusive and ensure that we do not leave young people in these communities behind. We want to work with the private sector and telecoms companies to ensure that these communities have access and then reach the sub-divide in Nigeria. And you also are aware that a not very recent policy direction or statement was made by Nigeria or commitment rather, the cost of the main band cables for internet infrastructure was actually crushed. It was crushed a great deal. I think it’s about one and a half per metre now to leave fibre optic cables for the tech companies in order to ensure that we give access to rural communities and to people in rural communities to technology. So I think that is a very, it’s a remarkable achievement for us as a government. And we’re also ensuring that, I mean, if this policy comes to fruition and the private sector leverages on it, I think that’s enabling the environment to ensure that we increase access. Yeah, I’m excited about the TIFO administration. I also see that they also liberalise access to power as well. So that has been some exciting development, ensuring that even the most rural communities are able to access it.

Farai Gundan: Thank you so much for your remarks, Dr. Jamila. Over to you, Priscilla. You are over at Google. How should policies evolve to support the integration of AI into youth development? programs in Africa. And then I also want to add to that, who then owns that data? Because it’s one thing to actually begin to develop these training models with the data, but who should own data? Does it reside on the continent or does it reside here in the U.S. with the various companies?

Priscilla: Thank you so much. I’m humbled to be here next to the minister who is also a doctor on the side in your spare time. I think you’re a tremendous example of our African community. Google has been on the continent for about 17 years and we invest $1 billion. And we are in four countries across the continent, Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, and Kenya. And I bring this up because two of those countries actually host our African AI research centers. So we already employ PhD students, researchers, engineers who are African, who are from Africa, who are deploying and developing technologies for Africa. So the technology exists and we have researchers and experts who focus on how do we identify solutions to the pressing problems that we have on the continent. And they’ve been doing this since 2018. So now we have a new center in Kenya that focuses on food security, some of the agricultural precision, and some of the different food security issues that we mentioned. But it’s important to note that Africa is a regionally diverse space, right? And so is our digital ecosystem. It is very diverse. Now we have some very strong digital economies like Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, and Ghana. So we have a lot of work to do to distribute from some of that world, right? And this is where I think that young people have a really important role to play because they are developing some of this innovation, like our both of you are deploying some of these technologies. But we need to have supportive and enabling systems in place. So, what I’ve been doing is working with the African Union, with our colleagues at the Commission to see how do we do this at scale? How do we take a really positive example to expand it to those 55 member countries? And I think one of the greatest examples that we have is African Startup Policy Framework that recently just came out. And so, this will enable all of the member states to develop policies that incentivize founders to go and take a leap from work, to then go and start their startups, to have incubators in place, to have grants, and to really be able to have a community that supports the development of startups. Because Google was once a startup, once upon a time as well. And so, we think about what was in place in order for a company like Google to thrive? And how do we create more of those that are African, that are African-based? And so, policy is really, really critical. In addition to putting in place policies to support our young people, we also have to get our policymakers at a level where they are literate and really conversant in subjects that we are discussing, right? It’s hard to have a conversation with someone who’s not speaking the same language, right? We’re speaking past each other. And this is globally, not just in Africa. My colleagues in the EU face some of the same issues. And I think the advantage that we have is that we can take some of the lessons from the other regions and then choose what will be best and what will work for the continent. So that we can determine how we leapfrog, because we don’t have some of the same legacy issues that some of the developing countries have, right? So I think in some spaces, we actually have some advantages when it comes to policy. And then we have some disadvantages that we know about, but we’re doing a lot in this space. And I would love to invite everyone here, actually, to our AI policy training, short plug, at the Global Africa Business Initiative. So it will be on Wednesday. Right here in the city. We hope you can come. It’s basically an AI policy training course for policymakers and government officials. If you’re not a government official, you can still reach out to me. We have other programs. But it’s basically intended to make sure that our policymakers are literate in this domain and that they also can see the value and how we can help them in the delivery of government services to citizens. And then can also feel empowered to regulate AI.

Farai Gundan: Amazing. I love the fact that it is centralizing, at least at a policy development level. I actually was involved in the market entry for a flood away in South Africa. And so that is part of my journey as a FinTech founder. So I’m so excited. But essentially what happens and speaks to this is we literally have to go to every central bank in Africa, 55, and ask for permission and understand the regulatory environment in each marketplace. And then begin to build our API stack for each marketplace. So you can imagine how challenging this can be, but excited about what Gen AI can do for us. So to you, Kola, founder to founder, FinTech founder to founder, from your experience as CEO of Sava, a FinTech payment system, what are the main challenges facing the implementation of digital innovation in Africa? And I’ll let you share the pain, what keeps us up at night. And hopefully they’re quite similar.

Kolawole Olajide: Thank you so much. So at Sava we built the smartest bank card in Africa. And, you know, with the partnership with MasterCard and raising $5 million from investors. The goal was, you know, how do we enable investment in Africa in the next 20 pages. We built software that allows businesses to issue cards and write rules. You can write rules across four verticals, budget, time, location, and merchant. You could write a rule to say, hey, Conrad business of Africa is traveling to the United States. This card will only work on these days. This card will only work on these merchants, and these merchants, this card will only work at this time of the day. If Conrad will submit certain receipts on time, he wouldn’t be able to use the card anymore. So now you might have so many merchants coming up every day on the continent, and we need these rules to be active in real time. There’s just so much computing power going to be keeping this system active. And, you know, building this solution has opened my eyes to, I mean, deeply into the world of AI. And I’ll start with the point on the regulations, right? With this solution now, with the MasterCard partnership, we can basically operate in any country, MasterCard operates in the United States today, but we still need regulatory approval in each country to be able to go live. Right now, we have approvals in South Africa, and we have approvals in Kenya, and we’re growing. But I think what’s really important for me, I mean, in this, for my experience, was the cost of training this machine. I think there’s a lot of conversations we’re having around at the service layer, which is what can we do with these tools? But if as a continent, we’re not, you know, intentional about being in the value chain of what creates these tools, it would always continue to be a barrier for entry, even if we have the best centers on the continent. Right. And, you know, I’ll just quickly talk you through the value chain of, you know, AI, before it gets into your hands on certificate. Yeah. There’s a specialized hardware that needs to be developed. And a lot of that is designed with resources from the continent, but made in China. Then because of high demand for computing power, these devices, and then this specialized hardware is already fully bought out by two to three companies, Google, Microsoft. Then there are some intellectual property models, proprietary models, called the foundational models that hosts the machine learning ops. And then we have custom layers for different applications, and then we have the services. If as a continent, we only participate in that service layer, we have a big problem in the long-term. We will continue to, it will be very expensive for us. And I think it’s important that for government, we need to be intentional about being participating in this chain. How do we get Google and Microsoft and some of these players to localize some of the technology and help bring down the costs, so that the top talent on the continent can deal with better solutions at an affordable price and also scale up.

Farai Gundan: Thank you so much. And it is definitely a pipeline issue, it’s definitely a value chain issue, where we have to play and own, I’m really big on ownership, ownership of the data, because it comes from us, right? So we have to own that data, even where the data resides, it has to reside on the continent. I was in Rwanda, and President Parker Ghani has said, Rwanda is a proof of concept country. And so come in and play and try all these things, but we retain that knowledge, we retain our failures, we retain our successes, because we understand our people. When talking about value chain, Minister Jamila, Dr. Jamila, what is being done to integrate AI and digital skills at the inter-educational systems across Nigeria, but also across the continent? And I have a two-part question for you. And the second part is, how can governments and the private sector work together to put young people with the necessary AI skills to thrive in the future economy? Taking what Paula has said in mind, that we’re not at the service level, so we’re not creating like fun games, service level games, but really at a hardware. Can we create the hardware that’s necessary to capture this data? Can we play at every level? So what are we doing from an educational perspective? And it’s a pipeline question.

Jamila Bio Ibrahim: Yes, very, very interesting question. Integrating AI at government level, in the schools and curriculum and all of that. I had engagements with the Minister of Education, because that’s the responsibility. Yes, policy mandates of the Ministry of Education. And I’m very excited to tell you that earlier this year, we had the EdTech conference in Abuja, in partnership with Mastercard Foundation. It was fully collaborated with the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Youth and Ministry of Education. And then there’s also an ongoing review of the curriculum at the national level to ensure that we integrate AI into our learning model. Right. And that’s, I mean, the direction, that’s the policy direction for this administration to ensure that we capacitate young people for learning, to think of AI within ethical limits. And, well, partnerships, I was just going to speak to how to engage and see how we can collaborate, yes, with Google, see how we can work together, even beyond the software, the games and the hardware. I mean, I have set some stages here, but I just went on the floor around some of the government offices in Nigeria, and realized that there were a lot of these components that were only here. So it raised a lot of concern here, and I had to talk to some of the heads of government to see how we can leverage the power of creativity and the potential of young Nigerians to actually start designing and fabricating and creating these components. So for local consumption.

Farai Gundan: So manufacturing.

Jamila Bio Ibrahim: Manufacturing.

Farai Gundan: On the continent.

Jamila Bio Ibrahim: On the continent.

Farai Gundan: So our inputs from the continent, beneficiation has to go on the continent.

Jamila Bio Ibrahim: That’s right. So there is the call to all partners to come to the table to work with us. I mean, we may not have all the resources, but we have a little change we can use to invest in new materials.

Farai Gundan: I don’t think Nigeria, you can put a little of Nigeria.

Jamila Bio Ibrahim: Well, I really, really think it’s time. I mean, who doesn’t invest in presidential initiatives to develop enterprises across the various digital technologies space, creative industry, agriculture, extractive industry as well. And there are also opportunities for investment in health sector as well. I mean, we have tech solutions in health as well. The continent has over 100 million young people who are unemployed and underemployed. Yes. And 53 million of these young people are Nigerians.

Farai Gundan: Yeah. So 100 million across the continent, 53 are Nigerian.

Jamila Bio Ibrahim: That is correct. So that leaves me with sleepless nights at the wedding to ensure that we continue to create opportunities to replace the youth capacity of these young people. and place them in meaningful employment. And that’s what, you know, inspired us to create or to design the initiative called the Co-exemption Initiative on Regions and Vice-Versa. I mean, all the sectors we’ve mentioned and we’ve been passing it on to people beyond just faculty, field and health, we’re handing it on to people through that process, the process of ideation of their, you know, conception of their ideas, all the way down to the creation of, I mean, access to markets and to the point of return on investment. We’re highly committed to that. And we’re, I mean, what’s it called? Partners, general and board and private sector, I mean, governments. Inquilus here, and Google is here.

Farai Gundan: So I do want to quickly jump in. You mentioned that you want to pull our sister to the side and maybe talk about collaboration. And I’m really excited to see that already, you know, partnerships are coming out of this. So talking about that, well, on the Google side, should a partnership or collaboration come out of this? The question would be, AI is one of Google’s priority areas in Africa. What ethical considerations should be taken into account when implementing AI technology? So here you are, the minister wants to talk to you about a collaboration. What should, what ethical consideration from your side, from your perspective, that should go into this? Just a quick answer to that.

Priscilla: I’ll just say there are many ethical considerations. We have ethical, responsible AI principles that we developed in 2018, actually, that we use to guide our company’s deployment of AI. But particularly in Africa, some of the things we think about a lot is how do we prevent a widening digital divide? Right. So, we’re deploying these amazing technologies. How do we make it more accessible and useful to more people on the continent? And how do we make sure that we’re not left behind in a lot of these conversations? A lot of that, for us, will have to do with having African data, African data sets, like you were saying, and making sure that we have local languages included as part of the development of data. And so, we’re doing a lot more partnerships with African universities and African researchers in this particular context.

Farai Gundan: Excellent. Thank you so much. In the interest of time, I’m going to move over to Kola. And I want you to wrap up our panel by answering this question. How can collaboration between youth-led startups, such as Atlas, because we are the youth, private sector, and governments be beneficial for the implementation of AI-driven initiatives?

Kolawole Olajide: Great question. So, yeah, I think technology would always move faster than innovation. We would always have both entrepreneurs trying to push the boundaries, right? But I think it’s, we need to be intentional about, you know, shortening that gap. And instead of solving for the perfect framework, because this moves so fast, let’s solve for having the right people in the room, right? And believe me, if we have the right people in the room, no matter how fast technology moves, you know, with the right people in the room, we’ll be able to catch up much faster, and hopefully at some point, we will be ahead, right? You know, and with that being said, I think, you know, sharing my experience, we would need a lot more, you know, private, you know, I would say investors in Africa to take the startup scene seriously, right? Now, a lot of the funding is international, and then you come to a lot of, you know, foreign PCs, and that also influences, you know, our goals. And yeah, of course, and also investment in education, right? We need the right talent to be able to take this forward on the continent. And yeah, I think it’s a super exciting time. You know, I remember when cloud was the hottest thing, right? And everyone, you know, we were late to that game. Now we’re paying so much to get, you know, great, I mean, good quality access to stable cloud. Let’s just make sure the same doesn’t happen with AI.

Jamila Bio Ibrahim: I really think it’s important to encourage young innovators and creators. I really think I need to just let you know that there’s a lot of hope, you know, that the Ministry of Youth is bringing to young people in that space. And in the coming months, we hope to actually create a platform where through venture capital funding, I mean, young people can have access to, you know, some form of an investment. So we have a platform where we’re working very hard to see, we bring young people across the states to teach potential investors. And of course, we leverage as well on the youth development bank that we hope to establish. And that’s in the long term. But in the interim, we can leverage temporarily in the short term, yes, on the youth investment fund and just, you know, do this venture capital thing where people can teach their ideas. And we’re calling on partners to work with us to achieve this.

Farai Gundan: Yes. Thank you so, so much. Thank you for indulging us. To the Honorable Minister, thank you. Priscilla, thank you. Kola, thank you. Thank you to the partners, to Chido, and to everyone else at the A&E.

Moderator: In lieu of a full question and answer, since we’re running out of time, but please, you have the floor. Thank you so much for all these panels and information. I want to make a reflection about who could be involved in this especially too. I’m just coming back from Africa, precisely from the people in Dava, I’m sure some of you know it. It’s an amazing organization of grassroots researchers from all over Africa. They’re doing an amazing work on AI for good. In fact, I think they are leading the AI for good research in the world and we have a lot to learn internationally from what’s happening there. And so all this to say that I think academia and research, it’s not just a discussion, it seemed to me that it was a little bit discussion of private sector startups and government trying to put some regulation of what’s happening from the private sector. Maybe we have to think deeper. What are the goals of AI? Is it just innovation? Innovation for what, right? We are working on many different uses of generative AI and other types of AI, simulations for new policies, informing new global development indicators. This is also AI. And this is happening in Africa too. So this is just what I wanted to say. Let’s include all the stakeholders, especially in Africa. They’re doing an amazing work and we all have to learn from what’s happening there, especially in Dava.

Tonilyn Lim: Thank you very much. I think that was also a message that we got from the other panelists, the partnership, the involvement of different stakeholders from the UN to the private sector and certainly also academia and the research community certainly have to come together all to make this work, scale it for better adoption while respecting freedoms and rights as such. So anyway, I would like to close this session. I actually am not happy to do that, but we have to close at some point. Oh, sorry. We have a youth representative. I can’t, I just have to give like everything. Yes. Oh, okay. Do you want to come here?

Little boy: I just want to say that I am, I’m from India. I’m the world’s youngest speaker on technology and innovation. I’ve written a book on AI and I feel that can impact many lives of African kids who cannot be educated. Thank you. Sorry, I’m his father. No, thank you. It was a pleasure to be reading this book.

Tonilyn Lim: Yes. Thank you very much. So, along with the publication of Ranveer, please also have a chance to download publications from the UN Global Conference on AI for the Global Goals and also publications from IOE and our partners from AU. Thank you very much. And thank you all for attending this session. Thank you.

Agreement Points

AI has significant potential for sustainable development and achieving SDGs

Speakers

Sanda Ojiambo

Gerbrand Haverkamp

Arguments

AI can accelerate innovation and increase productivity to drive SDG progress

Gen AI can help solve complex sustainability problems like circular business models and food waste reduction

AI has potential to transform industries and deliver solutions for the global goals

AI can contribute to breakthroughs on climate change

Summary

Multiple speakers emphasized AI’s potential to drive progress towards sustainable development goals through innovation, productivity increases, and addressing complex sustainability challenges.

Importance of collaboration and partnerships in AI development and implementation

Speakers

Sanda Ojiambo

Priscilla Boa-Gue

Kolawole Olajide

Arguments

Need for multi-stakeholder collaboration including governments, private sector, and civil society

Partnerships between tech companies and African institutions to develop local AI solutions

Collaboration between youth-led startups, private sector and governments

Summary

Speakers agreed on the crucial role of collaboration between various stakeholders, including governments, private sector, civil society, and academic institutions, in effectively developing and implementing AI technologies.

Similar Viewpoints

Both speakers highlighted significant challenges in implementing AI in Africa, particularly related to infrastructure and cost barriers.

Speakers

Christopher Lu

Kolawole Olajide

Arguments

Lack of basic infrastructure like internet access and electricity in many areas

High costs of AI development and implementation for African startups

Both speakers emphasized the importance of creating supportive environments for AI startups and youth-led initiatives through policy and funding mechanisms.

Speakers

Priscilla Boa-Gue

Jamila Bio Ibrahim

Arguments

Creating enabling policy environments to support AI startups

Providing funding and investment opportunities for youth-led AI initiatives

Unexpected Consensus

Importance of local data and context in AI development

Speakers

Priscilla Boa-Gue

Unknown speaker

Arguments

Partnerships between tech companies and African institutions to develop local AI solutions

Inclusion of academia and grassroots researchers in AI development

Explanation

Despite representing different sectors (tech industry and academia), both speakers emphasized the importance of involving local institutions and researchers in AI development, highlighting a shared recognition of the value of local context and expertise.

Overall Assessment

Summary

The main areas of agreement centered around AI’s potential for sustainable development, the need for collaboration and partnerships, and the importance of addressing infrastructure and cost challenges in AI implementation in Africa.

Consensus level

There was a moderate level of consensus among speakers on key issues. This consensus suggests a shared understanding of AI’s potential benefits and challenges in the African context, which could facilitate more coordinated efforts in AI development and implementation. However, the diversity of perspectives also highlights the complexity of the issues and the need for continued dialogue and collaboration among various stakeholders.

Disagreement Points

Focus of AI development and implementation

Speakers

Sanda Ojiambo

Kolawole Olajide

Arguments

AI can accelerate innovation and increase productivity to drive SDG progress

High costs of AI development and implementation for African startups

Summary

While Sanda Ojiambo emphasizes the potential of AI to drive progress towards SDGs, Kolawole Olajide highlights the financial barriers that African startups face in developing and implementing AI technologies.

Overall Assessment

Summary

The main areas of disagreement revolve around the challenges of implementing AI in Africa, including infrastructure limitations, costs, and the need for ethical considerations.

Disagreement level

The level of disagreement among the speakers is relatively low. Most speakers acknowledge both the potential benefits and challenges of AI implementation in Africa. The differences in their arguments mainly stem from their different areas of expertise and focus, rather than fundamental disagreements. This suggests a generally aligned perspective on the topic, which could facilitate collaborative efforts in addressing the challenges and leveraging the opportunities of AI for sustainable development in Africa.

Partial Agreements

Both speakers agree on the need to address potential negative impacts of AI, but they focus on different aspects. Christopher Lu emphasizes the risk of widening inequality, while Priscilla Boa-Gue focuses on the need for ethical considerations and responsible AI principles.

Speakers

Christopher Lu

Priscilla Boa-Gue

Arguments

Risk of widening inequality if AI benefits don’t reach everyone

Need for ethical considerations and responsible AI principles

Similar Viewpoints

Both speakers highlighted significant challenges in implementing AI in Africa, particularly related to infrastructure and cost barriers.

Speakers

Christopher Lu

Kolawole Olajide

Arguments

Lack of basic infrastructure like internet access and electricity in many areas

High costs of AI development and implementation for African startups

Both speakers emphasized the importance of creating supportive environments for AI startups and youth-led initiatives through policy and funding mechanisms.

Speakers

Priscilla Boa-Gue

Jamila Bio Ibrahim

Arguments

Creating enabling policy environments to support AI startups

Providing funding and investment opportunities for youth-led AI initiatives

Key Takeaways

AI has significant potential to accelerate sustainable development and progress on the SDGs, particularly in areas like agriculture, healthcare, and climate change mitigation

There are major challenges to AI implementation in Africa, including lack of infrastructure, high costs, and risks of widening inequality

Empowering African youth through AI requires investment in education, skills training, supportive policies, and funding opportunities

Multi-stakeholder collaboration between governments, private sector, academia, and civil society is crucial for responsible and inclusive AI development in Africa

Resolutions and Action Items

Google to host an AI policy training for African policymakers and government officials

Nigerian Ministry of Youth to create a platform for young innovators to pitch ideas to potential investors

Nigerian government to review and update educational curricula to integrate AI

African Union to implement the African Startup Policy Framework to support AI startups

Unresolved Issues

How to ensure AI benefits reach rural and marginalized communities

Ownership and control of African data used to develop AI systems

How to increase African participation in hardware development and other parts of the AI value chain

Balancing innovation with ethical concerns and responsible AI development

Suggested Compromises

Partnering with tech companies to localize AI technology development in Africa to reduce costs

Balancing government regulation with allowing space for innovation in AI startups

Combining international investment with local African investment in AI initiatives

Gen AI can be a true game-changer for sustainability progress because it will democratize access to information, it will accelerate innovation through the solutions, through cross-disciplinary thinking, and certainly by increasing productivity.

Speaker

Sanda Ojiambo

Reason

This comment highlights the transformative potential of AI for sustainable development in multiple dimensions.

Impact

It set the tone for the discussion by emphasizing AI’s positive potential, leading to further exploration of specific use cases and applications.

At best, AI will help us solve the global goals, and that’s really important, but we must take a reality check because we realize that gaps in technology are really what keeps the world separate.

Speaker

Sanda Ojiambo

Reason

This balanced perspective acknowledges both the potential and challenges of AI adoption, particularly in developing regions.

Impact

It shifted the conversation to address issues of access and equity, prompting discussion on infrastructure needs and policy considerations.

AI will not take your job away, but the person with AI skills will.

Speaker

Shea Gopaul

Reason

This succinct statement captures a key concern about AI’s impact on employment in a memorable way.

Impact

It focused attention on the critical need for AI skills development and education, which became a recurring theme in later discussions.

If we do not do it here in the UN, it will either be decided in the US, in Europe, or in China, and then we know which other countries will not be at the table.

Speaker

Gerbrand Haverkamp

Reason

This comment underscores the importance of inclusive global governance for AI.

Impact

It emphasized the role of international bodies like the UN in AI governance, leading to discussion of ethical principles and regulatory frameworks.

If as a continent, we only participate in that service layer, we have a big problem in the long-term. We will continue to, it will be very expensive for us.

Speaker

Kolawole Olajide

Reason

This insight highlights the need for African countries to participate in all layers of the AI value chain, not just as end-users.

Impact

It shifted the discussion towards strategies for building local AI capabilities and infrastructure in Africa, including manufacturing and hardware development.

Overall Assessment

These key comments shaped the discussion by highlighting both the transformative potential of AI for sustainable development and the critical challenges that need to be addressed, particularly in developing regions. The conversation evolved from general optimism about AI’s potential to a more nuanced exploration of access issues, skills development needs, governance challenges, and the importance of building local AI capabilities across the entire value chain. This led to a rich discussion of practical strategies and policy considerations for leveraging AI to benefit youth and drive sustainable development in Africa while addressing equity concerns.

How can AI be made more accessible and affordable for developing countries and rural communities?

Speaker

Sanda Ojiambo, Christopher P. Lu, Jamila Bio Ibrahim

Explanation

Multiple speakers emphasized the need to bridge the digital divide and ensure AI benefits reach all communities, not just advanced economies.

What ethical principles and governance frameworks should guide AI development and deployment globally?

Speaker

Gerbrand Haverkamp, Christopher P. Lu

Explanation

Speakers highlighted the need for clear ethical guidelines and governance structures for AI, potentially developed through UN-led efforts.

How can African countries participate more in the AI value chain beyond just the service layer?

Speaker

Kolawole Olajide

Explanation

Olajide stressed the importance of Africa being involved in hardware development and other upstream aspects of AI, not just applications.

What steps are needed to integrate AI and digital skills into educational curricula across Africa?

Speaker

Farai Gundan, Jamila Bio Ibrahim

Explanation

Speakers discussed the need to update education systems to prepare youth for an AI-driven future economy.

How can governments and private sector collaborate to create more local manufacturing of AI hardware in Africa?

Speaker

Jamila Bio Ibrahim

Explanation

Ibrahim expressed interest in developing local manufacturing capabilities for AI components currently imported.

What measures can be taken to ensure African data used for AI development remains owned and stored on the continent?

Speaker

Farai Gundan

Explanation

Gundan raised concerns about data ownership and storage location for AI systems trained on African data.

How can more African private investors be encouraged to fund local AI and tech startups?

Speaker

Kolawole Olajide

Explanation

Olajide noted the reliance on foreign investors and the need for more local investment in African tech startups.

What role can academia and research institutions play in shaping AI development in Africa?

Speaker

Audience member

Explanation

An audience member highlighted the importance of including academic and research perspectives in AI discussions, not just private sector and government.