ICT and Digital Economy CS William Kabogo and Kenya’s Special Envoy on Technology Ambassador Philip Thigo are heading the Kenyan delegation at the France AI Action Summit which commenced on Monday at the Grand Palais in Paris.
Kenya alongside other African countries like Mauritania, Senegal, South Africa and Togo actively participated in the preparation of the Summit having been involved in working groups and various steering committees.
Speaking during an international press conference, French officials from The Élysée said that with 12 months of preparation and before the Summit, France held numerous conversations with different African countries.
These discussions, they said, were really interesting and in-depth; revolving around the meaning of the AI revolution and how it impacts numerous African countries, the needs of these states, and finding common ground to build together with Western nations.
The French officials added that these conversations inspired a General Interest AI initiative that not only seeks to benefit African states but also other countries from other parts of the world.
Dubbed “AI Foundation” (yet to receive a formal name), this initiative by France seeks to gather funds through public-private partnerships to be able to finance global general interest AI projects.
“There is always the narrative around building capacity on AI for African countries,” the officials said.
“The involvement of these nations indicated a need to build capacity on AI and influenced this big General Interest AI initiative which we expect to announce the first batch of financing on Tuesday. This, we believe, is the key component to opening and diversifying access to AI in African countries.”
AI, as we all know, the officials continued, is a technology that is challenging to all countries in the world and it’s of course a transformative technology; one that people are seeing more and more in their daily lives.
They further stated that France is convinced that this technology creates a lot of opportunities hence why the French nation decided to hold a summit that focuses on concrete action and being able to have a global conversation about AI.
In France, I think we are convinced that it’s a technology that creates a lot of opportunities and that’s why we decided to do a summit that we call the AI Action Summit. The summit focuses on concrete action and being able to have a global conversation about AI.
“This summit presents a chance to talk about the opportunities and questions that can be raised around AI i.e., questions about energy consumption, data, algorithms and even the position of various countries. We all know that the US and China are strong leaders in the field of AI,” they said.
“Co-chaired with India, as France, we want to have this discussion with other countries as well from across Africa, Asia and Latin America and a lot of European countries because we not only want to showcase the big moment for different states but also showcase what France and Europe can do with AI.”
The AI Action Summit aims to change the points of discussion around AI as a field of opportunities, the risks linked to AI and the opportunities this technology presents.
“The end goal is to make people understand the many possibilities that they can achieve through AI,” the French officials said.
“Today, American and Chinese companies are leading in the field of AI, which is great for both countries but we also believe that each country should have their own companies and technologies.”
“We want to have a discussion with all countries present on how tech innovation can emerge in a wide range of nations, what is necessary to do, can we bring more capital as well as develop more startups and how all this can happen.”
The summit involves talks on five key tracks; Public Interest AI, the Future of Work, Innovation and Culture, Trust in AI and Global AI Governance.
At the end of the summit, France hopes to have obtained a clear strategy for the country and the EU on AI, as well as attain deliverables on general interest AI and on sustainable AI.
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