SYLVIA MCKEOWN: Data nerds agree now is the time for Africa to join the revolution
Data nerds from across the continent descended on Cape Town this week for the AI Expo Africa. The two-day artificial intelligence (AI) conference was thick with engineering jargon, conversations about the impending future and the ethics behind automation. The consensus was that Africa has to make serious moves to be a part in the fourth industrial revolution. For those of you who don’t know, that revolution is happening right now. We have seen huge leaps and bounds in every technological sphere with each cycle of growth shorter than the last — and none so much as that of AI, which has seen an exponential rise in usage across all industries, particularly in 2018. On Monday, for example, Samsung announced that it will open a new research centre in New York to strengthen its AI abilities. With every single field now generating data from users, it becomes the perfect fuel to feed AI engines. As this kind of computing becomes easier to get a hold of and manage — even on the smallest leve...
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