This article proposes five ideas that the design of data governance policies for the trustworthy use of artificial intelligence (AI) in Africa should consider. The first is for African states to assess their domestic strategic priorities, strengths, and weaknesses. The second is a human-centric approach to data governance, which involves data processing practices that protect the security of personal data and the privacy of data subjects; ensure that personal data are processed in a fair, lawful, and accountable manner; minimize the harmful effect of personal data misuse or abuse on data subjects and other victims; and promote a beneficial, trusted use of personal data. The third is for the data policy to be in alignment with supranational rights-respecting AI standards like the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights, the AU Convention on Cybersecurity, and Personal Data Protection. The fourth is for states to be critical about the extent to which AI systems can be relied on in certain public sectors or departments. The fifth and final proposition is for the need to prioritize the use of representative and interoperable data and ensure a transparent procurement process for AI systems from abroad where no local options exist.
Category: Research Topic: Public Policy
Research Topic: Public Policy
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OECD Gender Equality in Technology Governance
Director Mackenzie represented the Aula Fellowship and the AI context in conversations at this global conference for equity. We stand together, or we fall.
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AI Governance for the Global Majority: Understanding Opportunities and Challenges
Artificial intelligence (AI) will impact individuals, communities, and institutions worldwide in both unique and universal ways. While public and private sector actors have begun to build the foundations for achieving more secure and trustworthy AI, the voices shaping the AI governance agenda are primarily from the Global North. To govern AI in a way that reflects a global range of contexts, it is imperative to adopt a more inclusive lens in defining its harms and opportunities. Broadly accepted AI governance principles may struggle to translate into practice without a more explicit focus on how priorities and challenges prevalent in the Global Majority intersect with AI.
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Autonomous weapons: Palantir, Airbus engineers seek to calm ‘killer robot’ fears
Our Fellow Tammy Mackenzie was recently interviewed by FRANCE 24’s Tech24 segment to share her thoughts on AI in Autonomous Weapons Systems (AWS).
The segment looks into the ethical implications of deploying AI in military operations and discusses the critical need for regulatory frameworks that ensure these technologies are used responsibly. As the conversation around AI evolves, we must engage with these topics. Properly balancing military pragmatism and AI ethics is among the most significant global challenges today.
How do you think we can achieve a balance between innovation and responsibility?
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A Global South Perspective on Explainable AI
A context-driven approach is necessary to translate principles like explainability into practice globally. These vignettes illustrate how AI can be made more trustworthy for users in the Global South through more creative, context-rooted approaches to legibility.
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Unveiling AI Concerns for Sub-Saharan Africa and its Vulnerable Groups
In Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), artificial intelligence is still in its early stages of adoption. To ensure that the already existing class imbalance in SSA communities does not hinder the realization of the Sustainable Development Goals, such as data security, safety, and equitable access to AI technologies, acceptable reliability measures must be put in place (as policies). This paper identifies some of the vulnerabilities in AI and adds a voice to the risks and ethical concerns surrounding the use of AI and its impact on SSA and its vulnerable groups. Our systematic literature review of related research between January 2014 and June 2024 shows the current state of AI adoption in SSA and the socio-political challenges that impact its development, revealing key concerns in data Governance, safety privacy, educational and skill gaps, socioeconomic impacts, and stakeholder influence on AI adoption in SSA. We propose a framework for designing data governance policies for the inclusive use of AI in SSA.
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Strengthening Data Protection: Ensuring Privacy and Security for Nigerian Citizens
This Policy Brief examines the existing data protection regime both in Nigeria and globally and suggests ways to improve the data protection efforts in Nigeria. It considers Nigeria’s principal data protection laws, generally applicable across all sectors (including public and private institutions). By examining and juxtaposing some of the exemptions in legislation, an opportunity for abuse of data subjects’ rights may have been inadvertently created by laws that were enacted to do otherwise. This Policy Brief proffers preferable outcomes that may guide engagement with policymakers to rectify this situation.
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The missing voices at AI conferences
Policymaking should be a society-wide effort, including elected officials, government employees, academics, business leaders, civil society groups and individuals. In theory, each of us should be able to participate.
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Digital Surveillance in Southern Africa
Surveillance practices are increasingly becoming dynamic and pervasive, spurred on by the ever-mutating changes in technological inventions at a global level. The practice of surveillance has become embedded in our everyday digital communications, public spaces, workplaces, cross-border movements, financial transactions, logging transactions and many other spaces on which citizens interact. What makes the case of southern African region unique is not only the increasing pervasiveness of surveillance, but the acute lack of transparency in the practice, the absence of necessary and proportionate regulations and the politicized nature of surveillance in the region. This is worrisome in a region where constitutionalism is sluggish, democracy is decline and (semi) authoritarian tendencies are becoming more entrenched.
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Global environmental health impacts of rare earth metals: Insights for research and policy making in Africa
The rise of globalization and industrialization has driven the demand for rare earth metals (REMs). These metals are widely used in various sectors of the global economy with various applications in medicine, renewable energy, electronics, agriculture, and the military. REMs are likely to remain an important part of our global future, and, as production increases, areas contaminated by REMs are expected to expand over the coming decades. Thus, triggering significant adverse environmental, animal, and human health impacts. Despite increased attention on REMs outside China in recent years, there are limited studies exploring REM production, deposits, and associated health impacts in the African context. Proper mine management, adequate safety protocols, sustainable processing methods, and waste handling systems have been identified and proposed globally; however, the nature and scale of implementing these management protocols on the African continent have been less clear. Therefore, planetary health-centered solutions are urgently needed to be undertaken by researchers, policy makers, and non-governmental actors in Africa and across the globe. This is with the overarching aim of ensuring eco-friendly alternatives and public health consciousness on REM exploitations and hazards for future generations to come.
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Leveraging responsible, explainable, and local artificial intelligence solutions for clinical public health in the Global South
In the present paper, we will explore how artificial intelligence (AI) and big data analytics (BDA) can help address clinical public and global health needs in the Global South, leveraging and capitalizing on our experience with the “Africa-Canada Artificial Intelligence and Data Innovation Consortium” (ACADIC) Project in the Global South, and focusing on the ethical and regulatory challenges we had to face. “Clinical public health” can be defined as an interdisciplinary field, at the intersection of clinical medicine and public health, whilst “clinical global health” is the practice of clinical public health with a special focus on health issue management in resource-limited settings and contexts, including the Global South. As such, clinical public and global health represent vital approaches, instrumental in (i) applying a community/population perspective to clinical practice as well as a clinical lens to community/population health, (ii) identifying health needs both at the individual and community/population levels, (iii) systematically addressing the determinants of health, including the social and structural ones, (iv) reaching the goals of population’s health and well-being, especially of socially vulnerable, underserved communities, (v) better coordinating and integrating the delivery of healthcare provisions, (vi) strengthening health promotion, health protection, and health equity, and (vii) closing gender inequality and other (ethnic and socio-economic) disparities and gaps. Clinical public and global health are called to respond to the more pressing healthcare needs and challenges of our contemporary society, for which AI and BDA can help unlock new options and perspectives. In the aftermath of the still ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the future trend of AI and BDA in the healthcare field will be devoted to building a more healthy, resilient society, able to face several challenges arising from globally networked hyper-risks, including ageing, multimorbidity, chronic disease accumulation, and climate change.
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Powers, Interests and Actors 1: The Influence of China in Africa’s Digital Surveillance Practices
This chapter examines the influence of China in the growth of Africa’s digital surveillance 1 capabilities and practices. The growth of Chinese investments through its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in the global south is well documented. Yet, China’s digital infrastructure investments in Africa still present a research lacuna that needs to be filled. Equally under-researched is how it influences African governments’ clampdown on citizens. Utilising the international political economy approach, we analyse the intersection of power, actors and interests in Africa’s surveillance practices focusing on Zambia and Zimbabwe. We focus on Zimbabwe and Zambia because their ties with China are among the most enduring of all African countries.