By Cyriacus Nnaji
Nigeria Information Technology Reporters Association (NITRA) on Wednesday, 28th of August, 2024, at the CitiHeight Hotel, Ikeja, Lagos, hosted industry players in the digital economy to brainstorm on the prospects and also proffer solutions to challenges of Artificial Intelligence’s adoption in Nigeria.
Tagged NITRA ICT Growth Conference 4.0, the event has the theme “Impact of AI on National Development: Prospects, Policies, and Challenges in Nigeria”.
Dr Oluseyi Akindeinde, the Founder, Hyperspace and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of NeuRaL AI, providers of essential support to organisations intending to build and deploy Large Language Models (LLMs), in his contribution made it clear that AI adoption as disruptive as it is would not take away people’s jobs rather it would enhance their productivity.
Akindeinde also asserted that up-skilling of knowledge is a crucial requirement for sustainable AI adoption in Nigeria.
To discuss the topic Akindeinde started with the challenges facing AI adoption in Nigeria which includes phobia that it would disrupt and sack people from their jobs. He assured Nigerians that AI would not take their jobs, maintaining that the problem with Nigerians is that there is always fear whenever a piece of technology is introduced in the country. “Anytime there is new technology that comes in, there is that phobia, there is that fear that it is going to be disruptive, yes it is disruptive but when a piece of technology is disruptive that means it can do things cheaper, it can do things faster and it can do things better. But some of the challenges are based on the assumption that AI is going to take our jobs, and because it is going to take our jobs, the first thing is to push it back and will not allow it.
“I am here to assure that AI is not going to take anybody’s job, it is the same thing about 25 years ago when we started hearing about internet, even Journalists felt at a time, are we still going to have newspaper, anybody can just go online and have a blog and start reporting, you know, are we still going to have TV since somebody would go on Youtube and upload a video. And if you look back you recall how information was consumed back then, when something happened you probably wouldn’t hear about that event until, maybe, 7 o’clock news or 9 o’clock news or the following day when the newspapers will report it, but when the internet came, it democratized information dissemination. The same thing is happening with artificial intelligence,” he said.
Akindeinde further stated that rather than take away jobs, Artificial intelligence is going to help Nigerians, adding that the intelligence is still artificial. “Whatever you are currently doing it is going to help your operation, it is not going to take your job because at the end of the day AI is artificial intelligence. Now for it to work that means something has existed which is human intelligence. That human intelligence has being with human for ages, which it put together to make artificial intelligence and the thing about AI is that the things humans find difficult to do, that is what AI is doing. The things we find easy to do, AI cannot do them. For instance, if I keep my phone on a platform and I said go into the room and pick my phone on the table, now the AI because you programmed it for the table, it will come back to tell you I can’t find your phone. But the human being will say okay, it is not on the table, it is elsewhere, he will pick it, but what humans find difficult, is what AI does better.
“As a Reporter, AI would make your job better; there is an app in the phone that as I am speaking, it is recording and not only recording, once I say stop, everything recorded, it would transcribe everything. Another person who doesn’t have it would use one hour transcribing the recording but the AI would do that in seconds, so right now you can be more productive.”
Speaking about the impact of AI on education, he said that Africa is wired for consumption, adding that they don’t produce and they don’t do things that affect the global economy all because of the educational system. He gave the instance of China where their educational system permits them to teach their children in their local language, the language they understand. “With AI when you are teaching in English it will be appearing to the person in his own language, everything is converted on the spot, it is not as if they are going to translate it, it is not as if you are going to teach Igbo teacher mathematics, no, AI can do that for you on the spot.”
Akindeinde disclosed further that AI can also help a vision impaired person by deploying a vision model to know what is happening around them. He decried the absence of skilled personnel among professionals for adjudication and or regulation of issues relating to IA, he therefore suggested that lawyers, Journalists, doctors and other professionals should go for training to up-skill their knowledge on the workings of AI.
Prof. Obadare Peter Adewale, Founder and CVO of Digital Encode, represented by Oluwakayode Olatunji, CISO and Group Head of InfoSec & GRC Advisory, emphasized the need for Nigeria to understand the threat landscape and the critical role of cybersecurity in protecting against these threats. This is essential for driving sub-sectorial digital growth through Artificial Intelligence (AI).
In his presentation, he noted that many African countries lag behind in cybersecurity, stating that even in Nigeria, the financial sector has been at the forefront of leveraging AI and cybersecurity, contributing about 25%-30% of AI involvement based on local statistics.
He highlighted the potential of AI across various sectors, including finance, health, energy, transportation, defense, medical, and agriculture. He underscored AI’s ability to predict productivity and its diverse benefits but quickly cautioned against the dangers of AI misuse, stemming from issues such as bias and fairness, inadequate transparency, security vulnerabilities, data privacy concerns, and ethical and moral dilemmas.
The cybersecurity expert discussed the use of AI in threat landscape profiling, crime detection and prevention, and reporting capabilities. He stressed the importance of responsible AI usage and the need for continued investment in AI and cybersecurity.
Identifying AI Governance, Architecture, Implementation, Operations, and Monitoring (GAIOM) as key elements for effective cybersecurity strategies in responsible AI development, he emphasized the importance of AI architecture, including business and data architecture, technology-infrastructure architecture and the necessity of a security architecture which includes cybersecurity and data privacy protection respectively.
He said, “Data protection and privacy are crucial components of AI implementation. The process of implementing AI, from setting goals to security monitoring, is vital. The role of education and investment in education for driving AI adoption and economic growth cannot be overemphasized.”
He introduced the concept of “knowledge banking,” where knowledge can be monetized to address various economic sectors. He pointed out that in countries using AI to drive their economies, education is a fundamental prerequisite, and positively disruptive education leads to the needed transformation by developing tailored skill sets.
“When we examine this, it becomes evident that many challenges we face in this part of the world will become easier to address. As a country, we have the potential to be a leading light in the knowledge economy because Nigeria is blessed with brilliant men and women,” he said.
Earlier, in his welcome address, Chairman of NITRA Mr. Chike Onwuegbuchi said there has been a known trend in Nigerians’ adaptation of new technology, where usage is higher than implementation and also call on government to ensure that the study of AI is included in secondary schools curriculum. “For instance, we are number one in the usage of internet in Africa but lags in connectivity and internet penetration. Artificial Intelligence has followed the same trend, Google search trends reported recently that searches for artificial intelligence (AI) have continued to rise around the world, with Nigeria experiencing a 130% increase in 2024.
“There has been a lot of discussions around fears of artificial Intelligence such as loss of jobs. What AI is not-over exaggerating what AI can do. Talk about the need to build a good foundation for AI integration into the economy through introduction in school curriculum for us not to repeat the experience of computer science studies in the university where students graduate without having hands-on computer.
“At the end of this forum we would like to relevant ICT stakeholders to collaborate with government agency that design curriculum for school to ensure that the study of AI is included in secondary schools,” Onwuegbuchi said.
