NICK CLEGG: Tailor-made AI technology could give Africa a leg up

With so many hyperbolic claims and counterclaims being made about artificial intelligence (AI), it’s hard to know what to think. Should we be hopeful or afraid, excited or sceptical? Will any of this actually make a difference to our lives soon?

While generative AI tools can do amazing things, it is still nowhere near human-level intelligence. They are, in effect, highly sophisticated pattern recognition machines. But while they can’t think for themselves, they are remarkable problem-solving tools. They are already helping accelerate medical and scientific research, and making a big difference in a range of industries.

AI tools have the potential to boost productivity enormously. And they can help us in our everyday lives. AI assistants could provide tailored support when we need it and help us get more done. We will soon roll out our Meta AI virtual assistant to WhatsApp, Messenger and Instagram users in Nigeria and SA, alongside a number of other countries, that you can use to answer questions with real-time information and generate images from text prompts to share across your favourite app.

As more people, businesses and organisations get to grips with how AI tools can help them solve problems they could create huge economic and social opportunities. But that will take time, and it will require that AI tools are tailored to the specific needs of South Africans.

That’s what Jacaranda Health has done with its AI-enabled digital health service, Prompts, designed to help expectant mothers across Sub-Saharan Africa. Prompts sends women text messages in Swahili tracked to their stages of pregnancy. It also has an AI-enabled help desk that uses natural language processing to triage and respond to their questions, and makes rapid referrals if a risk is identified.

With Meta’s support, Jacaranda aims to expand Prompts to 1.3-million women across the region. To do all this, Jacaranda developed an AI tool that understands Swahili, built on Meta’s open source Llama 2 foundation model.

Translate voice

The computing power required to build and operate foundational AI models can be vast and expensive, which is why so few companies have them. Most of those companies are in the US, but generative AI will not have the sort of transformative effect people hope it will in SA unless people are using AI tools designed with local needs in mind. That’s why it’s important that many of these models are open and accessible, so more Africans can do what Jacaranda has done and adapt them for Africans to use.

Meta has a long history of sharing AI technologies such as PyTorch, the leading machine learning framework, and our Llama large language models. And we’ve published more than 1,000 AI open source models and tools, including our “Seamless” suite of AI research models that can translate your voice into another language.

I was in SA recently to meet policymakers, academics, experts and entrepreneurs and talk about open source AI and how Meta can support the growing digital economy here. Africa has a young, tech-savvy population that is brimming with creativity. In little more than a decade it could have the world’s largest workforce. The continent is on the cusp of becoming a major centre for innovation. We want to be part of that.

That’s why we’ve rolled out programmes such as Boost with Meta and #SheMeansBusiness, reaching millions of small businesses across the continent and helping more than 350,000 entrepreneurs develop their skills. And it’s why we’ve laid tens of thousands of subsea and terrestrial fibre cables, such as 2Africa, helping generate tens of billions of dollars for African economies.

This is good for Africa and for Meta. We want Africans to build amazing things with our technologies. Better products, faster innovation and a flourishing market in Africa will benefit Meta as it will many others. With fast internet access and AI technology tailor-made for Africa’s needs, challenges and opportunities, the sky’s the limit.

• Clegg is president: global affairs at Meta.