Africa tipped on power of artificial intelligence

Pulse Lab Kampala (PLK) has called on stakeholders to support the creation of an environment that fosters the use of data and artificial intelligence (AI). 

Speaking at the Conference on the State of Artificial Intelligence in Africa (COSAA) held at Strathmore University in Nairobi, Kenya, last month, Ms Morine Amutorine—a data associate at PLK—highlighted the importance of collaboration in creating platforms and communities that can help scale up projects beyond Africa.

“When working alone, a project cannot scale beyond Uganda or even Africa at large,” noted Ms Amutorine.

During the event, Ms Amutorine showcased a radio mining tool developed by PLK. 

The AI-powered social listening tool can monitor multiple radio stations at the same time and filter out content based on specific keywords. 

“When we wanted to assess public opinion about Covid-19 in Uganda, specific keywords would be fed in and the tool would retrieve audio clips of radio talk shows that were discussing that topic,” she explained.

Prowess
The tool can listen to more than 20 radio stations simultaneously and comprehend three local languages in Uganda—Ugandan English, Acholi, and Luganda. 

Mr Martin Gordon Mubangizi, a data scientist doubling as the PLK lead, explained that the Automatic Voice Recognition tool should be trained with a vast dataset of content, including “text, pairs of text and audio, a list of all words in a given language and then attribute the rightful pronunciation.”

Ms Amutorine told Monitor that AI does not dispense with human effort. 

The latter is needed at the stage of transcribing and analysing the data in order to assess personal perceptions.

Mr Pius Kavuma Mugagga, a data engineer with PLK, consequently demonstrated another AI tool. Named the Pulse Satellite Tool, it is a product of a group of researchers at PLK that was birthed in 2015 in partnership with the United Nations Satellite Centre (UNOSAT). The goal then was to develop an AI tool that would estimate economic development of a region.

“We started by experimenting with satellite imagery,” Mr Mugagga revealed, adding, “The AI would then be programmed to identify, highlight and count shelter roof tops and later the results would be used to assess settlement mapping.”

He went on to explain that by looking at the nature of roof tops, you may be able to make some inference regarding the economic transition of a place. 
This, according to Mugagga, led to the initial conception of the Pulse Satellite Tool that was eventually taken on by UNOSAT. The tool proved handy in flood mapping.

“In January 2021, Mozambique experienced floods caused by Tropical Cyclone Eloise. They requested UNOSAT to do a rapid mapping on the area,” Mr Mugagga revealed, adding, “Using the Pulse Satellite Tool, UNOSAT was able to identify the areas of interest that were assessed for service delivery.”

Not ready to rest on its laurels, PLK is already looking to develop a platform where anyone can upload a satellite image whose results would be downloaded for use after the mapping process.

“However, there should be legal terms to it for it to be operational outside the UN systems,” Mr Mubangizi told Saturday Monitor, adding that that is why Uganda has joined Nigeria in being one of only two countries in Africa to embark on a national data strategy.

Mr Mubangizi further revealed: “PLK, in partnership with the Ugandan Ministry of ICT and National Guidance, are looking at achieving such goals by 2040 where big data and AI governance will be accessible by everyone for use, reuse and sharing.”

The conference—the first of its kind in Africa— highlighted the potential for AI to transform the culture of the United Nations and deepen its impact. Experts say by creating a supportive environment for data and AI, stakeholders can unlock opportunities for innovation and growth, driving positive change across Africa and beyond.

About artificial intelligence

Since the early days of computers, scientists have strived to create machines that can rival humans in their ability to think, reason and learn – in other words, artificial intelligence (AI).
While today’s AI systems still fall short of that goal, they are starting to perform as well as, and sometimes better than, their creators at certain tasks. Thanks to new techniques that allow machines to learn from enormous sets of data, AI has taken massive leaps forward.

AI is starting to move out of research labs and into the real world. It is having an impact on our lives. There can be little doubt that we are entering the age of AI.

As AI enters the real world by assessing loan applications, informing courtroom decisions or helping to identify patients who should receive treatment, so too does one of its most fundamental flaws: bias.

Algorithms are only as good as the code that governs them and the data used to teach them. Each can carry the watermark of our own preconceptions. Facial recognition software can misclassify black faces or fail to identify women, criminal profiling algorithms have ranked non-whites as higher risk and recruitment tools have scored women lower than men. But with these challenges, there has been mounting pressure on technology giants to fix them.

*Additional information source: BBC