artificial intelligence - The African Mirror

Mar

2024

No smartphone or internet? No problem; AI-backed phone has the answers

VISUALLY-IMPAIRED Nigerian Kehinde Olutubosun is a geography and animal enthusiast who struggled to find information because he has no smartphone. But that is changing, thanks to an Artificial Intelligence-powered mobile phone that works offline. The service, launched by Canada-based Viamo in Nigeria last month, allows anyone – even in the middle of nowhere without the internet - to access AI technology. Viamo uses a traditional handset to tap into local mobile phone networks to send commands or requests for information through SMS or voice calls. It works like other AI chatbots and can be used by illiterate persons since it…

Mar

2024

By BONFACE ORUCHO, BIRD STORY AGENCY

AI set to transform cricket in South Africa

SPORT

A digital makeover for South Africa’s cricket ecosystem could be in the works, leveraging artificial intelligence and blockchain technology to increase the popularity of the sport among fans while creating new revenue streams for fans, players and brands. Results of a pilot collaboration between LootMogul, an Indian sports technology company, Cricket South Africa and the Durban Super Giants have revealed an increase in fan engagement with cricket gaming platforms, pointing to the potential impact digitization could yield for the sport. According to Vibhu Srivastava, the digital marketing head at LootMogul, “it indicates the significant potential for future business opportunities.” Results…

Feb

2024

By LAYCKAN VAN GENSEN

Deepfakes in South Africa: protecting your image online is the key to fighting them

SCIENCE, TECH AND INNOVATION

LEANNE Manas is a familiar face on South African television. Towards the end of 2023, the morning news presenter’s face showed up somewhere else: in bogus news stories and fake advertisements in which “she” appeared to promote various products or get-rich-quick schemes. It quickly emerged that Manas had fallen victim to “deepfaking”. Deepfakes involve the use of artificial intelligence tools to manipulate images, video and audio. And it doesn’t require cutting-edge technical know-how. Software like FaceSwap and ZaoApp, which can be downloaded for free, mean that anybody can create deepfakes. LAYCKAN VAN GENSEN, Junior Lecturer in Mercantile Law, Stellenbosch University…

Nov

2023

By The African Mirror

South African university students use AI to help them understand – not to avoid work

EDUCATION

WHEN ChatGPT was released in November 2022, it sparked many conversations and moral panics. These centre on the impact of generative artificial intelligence (AI) on the information environment. People worry that AI chatbots can negatively affect the integrity of creative and academic work, especially since they can produce human-like texts and images. TANJA BOSCH, Professor in Media Studies and Production, University of Cape Town CHIKEZIE E. UZUEGBUNAM, Lecturer & MA Programme Coordinator, Rhodes University ChatGPT is a generative AI model using machine learning. It creates human-like responses, having been trained to recognise patterns in data. While it appears the model…

Nov

2023

By The African Mirror

Whose job will AI replace? Here’s why a clerk in Ethiopia has more to fear than one in California

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

ARTIFICIAL intelligence is changing the world – and one of the main areas it will affect in the short-to-medium term is the workforce. AI algorithms imitate real-world systems. The more repetitive a system is, the easier it is for AI to replace it. That’s why jobs in customer service, retail and clerical roles are regularly named as being the most at risk. NIUSHA SHAFIABADY, Associate Professor in Computational Intelligence, Charles Darwin University That doesn’t mean other jobs won’t be affected. The latest advances in AI have shown all kinds of creative work and white-collar professions stand to be impacted to…

Nov

2023

By GITONGA NJERU, BIRD STORY AGENCY

An AI helped bring this trafficked child home – now its doing the same for hundreds more

NEWS

PHILLISTA Waithera's mother said she had begun a new life after the return of her daughter thanks to the novel use of technology. The 11-year-old was first reported missing in Nairobi in July 2021 when she was just nine years old. At the time Waithera went missing, there were many other reported cases of missing children in the country. Based on media reports at the time, children aged between 0 to 13 years were the biggest victims. "We have worked closely with the police and several organizations to track down our daughter. It took a lot of patience and perseverance,"…

Nov

2023

By The African Mirror

Some African governments are spending millions to spy on their citizens – stifling debate and damaging democracy

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP, EDITORS CHOICE

GOVERNMENTS around the world use surveillance technology to monitor external threats to national security. Some African governments are also spending vast sums on mass surveillance of their own citizens. They are using mobile phone spyware, internet interception devices, social media monitoring and biometric identity systems. Artificial intelligence for facial recognition and car number plate recognition is another digital surveillance technology in their growing toolkit. TONY ROBERTS, Digital Research Fellow, Institute of Development Studies I recently led research which found that governments in Nigeria, Ghana, Morocco, Malawi and Zambia were collectively spending over US$1 billion a year on these digital surveillance…

Jun

2023

By SETH ONYANGO, BIRD STORY AGENCY

How the cookie crackdown plays to Africa’s text messaging strengths

SCIENCE, TECH AND INNOVATION

AFRICAN businesses are continuing to find value in a technology that is largely being forgotten by the latest offerings of the metaverse, artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain technologies. Despite a whirlwind of digital advancement, including a surge in smartphone penetration across the continent and the emergence of world-leading mobile money solutions, Africa remains a huge market for feature phones, which offer text-based communications and are not reliant on an internet connection. Consequently, "old-school" USSD or Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (known by most of us as text messaging services) have remained a cornerstone for many African companies' sales and services offerings.…

Jun

2023

By The African Mirror

Indian PM Modi meets tech CEOs as Washington visit concludes

WORLD

STEVE HOLLAND and SIMON LEWIS INDIAN Prime Minister Narendra Modi met with U.S. and Indian technology CEOs in Washington, the final day of a state visit marked by pledges of deeper U.S.-India cooperation on areas including space, artificial intelligence and quantum computing. President Joe Biden rolled out the red carpet for Modi on Thursday, declaring after about 2 -1/2 hours of talks that their countries' economic relationship was "booming." Trade has more than doubled over the past decade. Biden and Modi gathered with CEOs including Apple's Tim Cook, Google's Sundar Pichai and Microsoft's Satya Nadella. Also present were Sam Altman of OpenAI, NASA astronaut Sunita…

May

2023

By GABRIELLA OPARA, BIRD STORY AGENCY

An African alternative to ChatGPT takes Nigerian Telegram by storm

NEWS

AFTER enrolling as a distance learning student at the International University of Applied Sciences, Berlin, Justin Irabor quickly realized he needed help merging work and school. It wasn't easy to balance the duties of a professional web developer and a data science student. "My Master's program is online, and the challenge with that is that you need a study partner, otherwise you're never quite sure how much of the study material you've consumed. This was quite challenging because combining daily activities with school meant you have to synchronize with a lot of people. Sometimes I'm at work and my study…