Turning AI’s Opportunity into Reality for Africa

We’re at such an exciting moment in AI, with technical breakthroughs coming every few months or even weeks. This rapid progress in AI’s development represents an extraordinary opportunity for Africa; turning that opportunity into reality will require all of us to take action. As the Global AI Summit on Africa convenes, now is the time to take stock of what is at stake and what we can do to capitalize on this moment.

Let me begin by highlighting four areas where I see significant potential for AI to benefit everyone:

First, assisting people. AI will increasingly assist, complement, empower, and inspire people. Take for example, Google Translate, which helps people connect, access knowledge and information, and unlock opportunities. When Google first launched Translate in 2006, we offered only a few languages. Since then advances in AI have enabled us to expand to almost 250 languages – 110 of these added in just the last year alone, including African languages that hadn’t been there before like Fon, Kikongo, Luo, Ga, Swati, Venda and Wolof. And we’re working to expand that number to 1000. Google.org is also working with Masakhane Research Foundation and the Gates Foundation to establish an AI Hub for African Languages, which will enable greater multilinguality of critical AI-powered technologies.
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