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Accra (AFP)
An artificial intelligence research laboratory inaugurated by Google in Ghana, the first of its kind in Africa, will tackle challenges across the continent, researchers said.
The US tech giant said the capital's laboratory, Accra, would solve economic, political and environmental problems.
"Africa has many challenges for which the use of AI could be beneficial, sometimes even more than elsewhere," AFP spokesperson Moustapha Cisse told AFP. IA at Google's Accra, at AFP at the official opening of the center this week.
Similar research centers have already opened in cities around the world, including Tokyo, Zurich, New York and Paris.
The new lab, said Cisse, will use the AI to develop solutions in the areas of health, education and agriculture, such as the diagnosis of certain types of crop diseases .
Cisse, an expert from Senegal, said he hoped that specialized engineers and researchers in artificial intelligence would collaborate with local organizations and decision-makers.
Google is collaborating with universities and start-ups from Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa to strengthen regional AI development, he said.
"We just need to make sure the right education and opportunities are in place," he said.
"That's why Google sponsors a lot of these young people for their degrees … to help develop a new generation of AI developers."
– 'Opportunity Cleared' –
Other technology companies, including Facebook, have launched initiatives in Africa and demographics is a key driver of motivation.
The population of Africa is estimated at 1.2 billion inhabitants, 60% of whom are under 24 years old.
The UN estimates that by 2050 the population will double to 2.4 billion.
As online social networks grow, this represents a huge market for the US tech giants.
"Companies such as Facebook and Google clearly have the opportunity to really get in and put the pole in the sand," said Daniel Ives, a technology researcher at GBH Insights in New York.
"If you look at Netflix, Amazon, Facebook, Apple, from where much of this growth comes from?" He is international, "he told AFP in a recent interview.
? AFP 2019
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