“Digital sovereignty will allow countries to come out of poverty”

How would you define artificial intelligence (AI)?

M. J. With IA, machines are given a form of consciousness and start making decisions for human beings, they are able to take action.

S. N. AI is the capacity given to computers to have a behaviour that resembles that of humans.

What opportunities does AI offer to developing economies?

S. N. AI can be very helpful for developing economies. Some technologies require fewer resources than others while being very advanced and capable of addressing specific local problems. In healthcare, for instance, the Senegalese start-up KERA has made it possible to reduce face-to-face time between the patient and their doctor by collecting data beforehand, thus facilitating the initial diagnostic. In the farming sector, we have a project in Senegal aiming at mapping rice crops and evaluating their yield.

However, these developing economies are facing technical challenges: infrastructures, telecommunications, and energy remain very costly. Most of the data are very expensive to acquire, store and process, and this creates a disparity in data access. Sufficient computing and storage capacities are necessary, as well as basic regulations to use AI technology safely and ethically.

How can AI facilitate inclusion?

M. J. AI isn’t currently a driver of inclusion, it remains a mirror that reflects inequality in the real world, plagued with stereotypes and prejudice. In Africa, women don’t have access to education, they don’t have access to the Internet and live in precarious conditions: the digitalization that is underway is not at all equitable: according to UNESCO, women make up 20 % of all AI experts.

AI will be a driver of progress for women and young people once it is provided with good governance. Digital sovereignty will then allow developing economies to come out of poverty, create development opportunities and reduce their debt. Without sovereignty, we’ll experience digital colonization, and AI will strengthen big data’s control of our economy.

How can AI be used to reach the SDGs?

S. N. AI can be a driver and an accelerator for some actions. For now, if we map AI and SDG projects, most of them are limited to three sectors: agriculture, health, and education. The reason is that they are the most profitable sectors. We must make sure that other initiatives are also developed in other sectors for the benefit of people. On this subject, it is necessary to raise awareness in developing countries so they can profit from the opportunities AI is offering.

What ethical principles should guide the deployment of AI?

M. J. Good governance is essential. We are engaged in a race against time: we are pushing for the development of communication systems and Internet access in the most remote regions when the era of AI has already started. Where digital transformation isn’t complete, in Africa and Arab countries, AI needs an institutional framework, with strategies, national policies, and legislation, such as the laws against cyber-criminality or for data protection. Each country should be able to develop its own solutions to integrate AI and implement its own coding and regulation systems. We need more training to do that.

How can we ensure that AI remains a tool that non-specialists can understand?

M. J. AI must be democratized. To do so, developing economies must create their own language, their own definition of AI, and AI governance. We are in the era of the 4th industrial revolution, and as AI is everyone’s problem, its development also requires philosophers, sociologists, as well as legal and even religious frameworks.

Interviews conducted in May 2024.