50 feature XRDS • WINTER 2019 • VOL.26 • NO.2 Artificial Intelligence Policies in Africa Over the Next Five Years As Africa embraces and interacts with AI, what policies are relevant to foster its development? This article highlights some domains where AI is being applied and will be beneficial given Africa’s unique context and culture. By Micheal Nayebare DOI: 10.1145/3368075 sizes an “I am human, so I belong” par- adigm while Western culture focuses on the individual. In Africa, interper- sonal relations lead to group harmony. To understand how African cul- ture and technology development, specifically engineering, intertwine one needs to be familiar with Prof. Gertjan Van Stam’s work. He argues technology development in Africa should not be viewed with a narrow mindset of quantifiable things only, but also from other elements that bring about wholesomeness like be- havior, beliefs, and rituals [3]. Most importantly technology development in Africa ought to be developed from the “we paradigm” that fosters com- munity engagement and justice. The I n the next five years we will witness a shift in artificial intelligence (AI) within Africa, specifically around policy issues that are likely to emerge from some of the current trends in AI and from the general technology ecosystem both in Africa and the West. Therefore, in this article I take Miles and Bryson’s definition of policy as “a set of decisions that societies, through their governments, make about what they do and do not want to permit and what they do or do not want to encourage” [1]. They argue a particular technology does not need to be fully mature to have its policy guidelines developed and implemented. These policies can be drafted in the early stages of developing the technology. However, is this ap- proach universal across all econo- mies? Highly evolved economies have resources and skill sets to advance this kind of research, the same might not hold true for developing economies. In this article, I recommend AI poli- cies in Africa be developed in the early stages of AI development to prevent abandoning the technology, stifling innovation, and avoiding some of the already foreseen challenges of AI like bias and discrimination. Early AI pol- icy developments will guarantee there is a clear vision and strong case for AI and also enable us to identify gaps necessary for the technology to prog- ress like data and computing power. But for these policies and technology developments to be impactful, the eth- ics and values of African people must be considered. AFRICAN CONTEXT AND CULTURE Africa is home to about 1.2 billion people of which 226 million are youth with an average age of 19 years accord- ing to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) [2]. In terms of landmass, it can fit the USA or China and India with more room to spare. The continent is however not a single country, it has more than 50 democra- cies with people who speak different languages that include Arabic, English, French, and Portuguese. African cul- ture, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa, differs from that of the West. It empha- Image by Zia Mary / Shutterstock.com