Synapse - Africa’s 4IR Trade & Innovation Magazine - 4th Quarter 2020 Issue 10

SYNAPSE

4th QUARTER 2020 ZAR25 | US$2.50 | Euro1.60

The Voice of African AI & Data Science

SA GOVERNMENT TO TRAIN 50 000 DATA SCIENTISTS

AI-focused Investment Matchmaking Platform Launched

WHAT SOUTH AFRICANS THINK ABOUT AI, ROBOTS

AI Expo Africa 2020 ONLINE Highlights

WHY MAURITIUS TOPPED THE 2020 GOVERNMENT AI READINESS INDEX

World of Work in 2035: What to Expect

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CONTENTS 4th QUARTER 2020

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AI Media Group launches The Deal Room

6

Microsoft’s Workshops at AI Expo Africa 2020 ONLINE

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Data Prophet raises $6m Series-A round

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SA’s Swiftvee nets $1.5m investment

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AI Expo Africa 2020 ONLINE highlights

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Ghana’s Nokwary wins 2020 Ecobank Fintech Challenge

17

FinChatBot raises $1.6m for EU, W.Africa expansion

18

AI Expo Africa 2020 Innovation Wall Challenge winners

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Zindi launches recruitment platform

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Africa AI Accelerator’s inaugural cohort

23

HSRC, Facebook announce grant awardees

24

Kudoti founder wins BRICS Young Innovator Prize

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SA government to train 50 000 data scientists

28

Managing experiences intelligently

30

Here’s what work will look like in 2035

31

Lessons learnt by Allan Gray’s data science team

34

Why you should automate your trade reporting solution

35

Recommendations of SA’s 4IR Presidential Commission

41

Huawei trains 122 SA students in AI

42

What South Africans think about AI, robotics & automation

45

Ada Labs December plans

46

2020 Government AI Readiness Index

47

AI healthtech: Lower-income countries leading adoption

48

Startups & AI: Use cases in low, middle-income countries

50

Q&A: Cirrus CEO Gregg Barett

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UNESCO submits AI ethics draft

. er 2021 eptemb S ions 9 7 otificat back n y e b it r l il io Africa w d get pr ities. ailer an AI Expo pportun o m r s e w t s e o ly Bird n ing & p per Ear , exhibit u S ip h e s h r t o ation/ ns r for /registr ing, spo m k Registe o a .c e a p s ic r 021 iexpoaf about 2 http://a : e r e h r Registe

Daniel Mpala Deputy Editor: News & Media

4TH QUARTER 2020

AI EXPO Africa 2020 ONLINE turned out to be a great success drawing over 2000 registered delegates from 45 countries. In this show review issue, we look back at some of the exciting highlights from our third successful expo. We also look at some interesting reports published over the last couple of months covering public perception of AI, AI in Health, the future of work, government AI readiness, and how AI is being used in low and middle income countries.

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Watch the Latest AI TV Broadcasts

Nick Bradshaw AI Media CoFounder & Community Director

Roy Bannister AI Media CoFounder & Editor-inChief

“ITS BEEN a very interesting and challenging year where the whole world has faced up to combating COVID19. We are immensely proud to have helped mobilise some of Africa’s leading data scientists to join forces to support this crisis. We are also very grateful to our sponsors, speakers, delegates and partners who stuck with us and made AI Expo Africa 2020 ONLINE the success it was - we could not have done this without your efforts. In all of this we grew most of our show metrics and the show edition of Synapse Magazine was the biggest yet. We aim to do more in 2021 and we remain committed to growing the AI community in Africa. Thank you again for your loyal support, and from the whole team at AI Media HQ, we wish you a peaceful and safe holiday - see you all again in 2021”

DESPITE A very challenging year for most businesses in 2020, not least the events/media industry, AI Media managed to straddle the divide between real-world events and online events very successfully with a well-executed and attended AI Expo Africa 2020 ONLINE. As the global events industry recovers from the pandemic, our offering remains at the forefront of innovation, excellence and African community building in the AI/4IR space. We look forward to engaging with our community in 2021 with renewed vigour, and hopefully a real-world AI Expo 2021.

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AI Media Group launches The Deal Room Africa’s first AI-focused, free Investment Matchmaking Service

4TH QUARTER 2020

The AI Media Group has launched The Deal Room, Africa’s first artificial intelligence (AI) focused, free investment matchmaking service which aims to connect African AI focused startups to interested investors and venture capitalists (VCs).

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AI MEDIA GROUP is the publisher of AI and Data Science quarterly magazine Synapse, the AI TV YouTube channel, as well as the curator and organiser of AI Expo Africa — Africa’s largest B2B / B2G trade-focused AI, Robotic Process Automation and Data Science conference — which has been a great success over the last three years.

The annual expo has seen AI Media Group amass a database of over 1000 companies, most of which are Africa-based tech startups, scale-ups or small and medium sized businesses.

The company has regularly been asked by some of these firms to make introductions to investors and also observed the challenges faced by startups, such as access, transparency, intermediaries and fees.

Although AI Media Group has been able to connect some of these companies with investors in the past, the number of requests have been on the rise and the firm now wants to improve on this service in terms of scale, process formalisation and automation through the launch of The Deal Room.

The Deal Room will be hosted on the AI Expo Africa domain www.aiexpoafrica.com which is a popular platform for Africa’s Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) community with over 3 million hits a year allied to a vibrant LinkedIn Group with more than 4 000 members. The Deal Room’s primary aim will be to direct 4IR, AI and smart tech companies seeking funding to investors, VCs and organisations who are interested in backing firms in this rapidly growing sector.

The Deal Room has attracted six launch investment partners and they include; Cirrus AI, Cape AI Ventures, Knife Capital, E4E Africa, Britegaze & Intelligent Impact, with more set to join in the coming months.

Nick Bradshaw, CEO AI Media Group and co-founder of AI Expo Africa explained, “The main idea behind The Deal Room platform is to facilitate rapid matchmaking between an investor and 4IR / AI focused startups and scale-ups that align with the firm’s stage of growth. It’s often a minefield to find the right investor so we curated a group of like minded investors that are interested in this space or who have a track record of similar investments to date. This is a long awaited value add service for our community with no strings attached, no “middleman” and total transparency.”

The Deal Room’s launch investors cover a broad spectrum of the investment lifecycle and include; Cirrus AI CEO Gregg Barrett; Cape AI Ventures co-founder Pieter Boon; Knife Capital comanaging partner Andrea Bohmert; E4E Africa Ventures principal Bakang Komanyane; Britegaze CEO Reshaad Sha, and Intelligent Impact founder Aunnie Patton Power.

Sha stated, “BriteGaze Fund One’s primary purpose is to assist AI businesses to accelerate their growth in South Africa and across the African continent through the provision of growth funding and advisory services to expand into new verticals as well as new geographies.”

Boon stated, “We expect that the Deal Room could be a catalyst for startups in Africa!”

Power stated, “There is such a need for greater transparency for startups that are raising capital. We are excited to have this tool available to the market!”

Bohmert stated, “Investing in companies who solve real world problems applying deep AI capabilities is what we are looking for.

We are very excited about The Deal Room and its ability to match startups with investors, embracing a partnership journey that is equally more about substance and less about the hype”.

Komanyane stated, “The Deal Room will help us identify new 4IR-focused companies that align with our investment goals in this sector, its a great innovation for the Africa tech scene and one we are proud to be associated with” Barrett stated, “The Deal Room by AI Media Group will assist in the development of Africa’s AI ecosystem and is therefore an initiative that we are enthused to support and participate in.”

Bradshaw concluded, “The Deal Room’s biggest selling point is there is no complicated paperwork, costs or loss of equity for companies looking to use the platform. They simply answer a set of confidential questions on the nature of their investment needs, details about their company, products or services and the AI Media Group then passes them on to the most appropriate investor(s). Just like internet dating, our goal is to make a perfect match and speed up the process of investment capital flowing into the African 4IR tech sector. We can’t wait to see the results!”

Startups and scale-ups looking to submit their requests for funding can do so via The Deal Room online submission process HERE ai

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MICROSOFT HOLDS AI LABS

workshops at AI Expo Africa 2020 ONLINE

4TH QUARTER 2020

Securing master data using AI and Blockchain, Azure Cognitive Search and Azure Machine Learning — these were just some of the topics covered at the virtual workshops delegates at AI Expo Africa 2020 ONLINE had access to at Microsoft’s ebooth as part of the Microsoft AI Labs.

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THE MICROSOFT AI Labs were held on 3 and 4 September during the virtual tea and lunch breaks at the expo. In all , seven workshops were held.

In the workshop titled, In data we trust, or do we?, Fabian Van Der Merwe, Cloud Solution Architect Data and AI at Microsoft discussed how to secure master data using AI and Blockchain.

Van Der Merwe also conducted another workshop titled AI in building a decentralised Governance Model in which he discussed the use of AI in building resilient and scalable decentralised systems and organisations.

Asif Valley, National Technology Officer at Microsoft, discussed how Microsoft is using AI for Good.

Microsoft Cloud Solution Architect Data and AI, Kunda Chaikatisha held a workshop titled Azure Machine Learning where he discussed how to build, train, deploy and manage machine learning models using the Azure Machine Learning Service.

This while Tawanda Emmanuel Ziki, Cloud Solution Architect Data and AI at Microsoft conducted a workshop which tackled

a salient issue around AI innovation -- trust. Tiki’s workshop, titled Responsible ML: Protect Privacy and Confidentiality with ML focused on the Azure Machine Learning Service’s capabilities around securely and confidentially training, deploying and managing AI models.

Microsoft Head of Philanthropy, Charlene Verzmoter presented a workshop on the Microsoft Global Skilling initiative which aims to bring more digital skills to 25 million people around the world by 31 March.

Ignacio Floristan, Global Black Belt in Artificial Intelligence and Technical Specialist at Microsoft, conducted a workshop on Azure Cognitive Search which walked participants through Microsoft’s AI-powered cloud search service. The virtual workshop included a demo with online web pages and a PDF about Covid which had been ingested and cracked by several AI skills, and indexed into a search index.

The Microsoft AI Labs at AI Expo Africa 2020 ONLINE proved just how, even with this year’s virtual format, the show is one of Africa’s largest AI learning platforms. ai

DATA PROPHET RAISES $6M for International Expansion DataProphet, the Cape Town-based startup that develops AI solutions that enable manufacturers to step towards autonomous manufacturing, announced in a statement in August that it had raised $6-million in a Series-A funding round with Knife Capital, the Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa (IDC), and foundry engineering and equipment firm Norican Group.

4TH QUARTER 2020

DATAPROPHET SAID the funding will be used to strengthen its operational footprint internationally, as well as to fast-track the strategy of growing through and with the firm’s strategic partners across geographies and industry verticals.

“South Africa will remain our engineering and operational hub as we have access to great talent. DataProphet, however, is an international business with hubs located around the world.

This funding round will enable DataProphet to develop locally located sales and support for customers and partners across the world,” said DataProphet CEO and co-founder Frans Cronje.

Cronje founded the startup in 2014 with Daniel Schwartzkopff. The company initially raised funding from private investment group Yellowwoods, before it secured an undisclosed multi-million dollar funding round from Knife Capital in 2018 to boost its innovation capabilities.

DataProphet’s AI-as-a-service product DataProphet PRESCRIBE proactively prescribes changes to plant control plans to continuously optimise production without the expert human analysis that is typically required.

Last year DataProphet won the Alconics Award for Best

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Innovation in Deep Learning, and was also listed by the World Economic Forum in its Technology Pioneers of 2019. More recently, the firm was named by CBInsight as one of the Top 100 AI startups globally.

As manufacturers become more familiar with the value AI can create for them – they are realising that they must be careful to ensure they are not simply using AI for analytics, substituting scarce Process Engineers with even scarcer Data Scientists.

Rather, to realise the full value of AI, they need to consider how AI can play into their smart factory plans. These technologies are key to achieving the goals of Industry 4.0 and allowing manufacturing plants to be far more responsive to the market demands without incurring additional costs.

“Supporting Manufacturers on their journey to augment the plant operators with clear holistic instruction from their data without building increased dependence on limited experts is a strategic rationale that has been reinforced by the effects of COVID-19. Through the application of our technology, each and every one of our clients has reduced non-quality products by more than 50%,” added Cronje. ai

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SA AGRITECH STARTUP SWIFTVEE closes $1.5m Investment Round Cape Town based agritech startup swiftVee announced in November that it had closed a $1,5-million investment round led by agri-investments firm Subtropico Ltd

SWIFTVEE, WHICH was founded in 2016 by technology lawyer Russel Luck, farmer Andrew Meyer and software engineer Alex Molde and later launched in 2017. The startup has developed an online platform and mobile phone that enables users to find, view and participate in livestock auctions.

The startup made history last year when its platform facilitated South Africa’s first sale of bull through its online auction. swiftVee has gone on to facilitate the sale of two of South Africa’s most expensive bulls through its platform -- a Simbra Bull sold for R270 000, as well as a Boran Bull sold for R1.7-million.

With the new investment, the swiftVee is now looking to expand to Botswana, Namibia and in other parts of South Africa.

Luck told South African tech publication Ventureburn that its platform uses machine learning and artificial intelligence to match buyers and sellers at optimal times to maximise efficiency. ai

Morocco’s ATLAN Space raises $1.1m from Maroc Numeric Fund II

4TH QUARTER 2020

Casablanca-based deep tech startup ATLAN Space in November announced it had raised $1,2-million from Maroc Numeric Fund II, a public-private investment fund managed by MITC Capital’s which is dedicated to financing Moroccan technology startups.

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ATLAN SPACE, which was founded in 2016 by CEO Badr Idrissi and CTO Younes Moumen, develops AI-powered solutions which guides unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in data collection and tracking missions over large geographical areas. The patented technology enables governments and institutions to fight environmental crime and assist vulnerable populations.

Idrissi explained in a statement in November that ATLAN Space is developing AI to enable UAVs to carry out tracking missions in total autonomy and without human intervention.

“This is for humanitarian purposes or to fight environmental crimes such as illegal fishing or deforestation,” he added.

In 2019 ATLAN Space raised an undisclosed amount in a seed funding round with Norwegian investment fund Katapult Ocean Fund. This latest deal marks the third investment of the Maroc Numeric Fund II. “The fund management team is proud to support ATLAN Space, a Moroccan startup that is the result of many years of R&D in artificial intelligence, and which has a proven technology with several clients internationally and in Morocco, with a high environmental and humanitarian impact,” said MITC Capital

managing director Dounia Boumehdi.

The startup has commercial contracts in Morocco, Niger and the Seychelles. ATLAN Space received the African Entrepreneurship Award innovation prize in 2017 and was ranked among the 10 best AI startups in Europe for 2019 by Nvidia. ai

AI EXPO AFRICA 2020 ONLINE

drives Regional & International

B2B/B2G 4IR Trade with 45 countries

4TH QUARTER 2020

AI Expo Africa 2020 ONLINE —Africa’s largest B2B / B2G artificial intelligence, robotic process automation and smart technology conference — broke new ground this year with the virtual platform drawing more than 2000 registered delegates and over 500 companies from 45 countries around the world.

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THIS YEAR’S two-day live edition -- held on 3 and 4 September -- was allied to a 30-day on-demand show wrapped up on 3 October.

With over 82,000+ platform visits during the show, delegates were able to watch 40 hours of thought leadership talks from global and local brands, visit more than 80 sponsor booths in the virtual expo hall, and review over 30 posters at the virtual innovation wall.

Day 1 of the show was opened by South Africa’s Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams, French Ambassador to South Africa Aurelien Lechevallier, and Han Peters, the Dutch Ambassador to South Africa. This while Day 2 of the show was opened by University of Johannesburg Vice-Chancellor and Deputy Chair Presidential 4IR Commission, South Africa Prof Tshilidzi Marwala; Western Cape Provincial

Minister of Finance and Economic Opportunities David Maynier, and Dr. Nicolas Brühl, Ambassador of Switzerland in South Africa.

Nick Bradshaw, CEO AI Media Group and co-founder of AI Expo Africa event said, “This edition of AI Expo Africa is our largest to date and also the largest of its class to be run in the Africa region and has received very positive feedback from both local, regional, and international trade delegates, as well as speakers and sponsors.”

Bradshaw explained that the online format was chosen for this year’s edition due to restrictions around hosting face-to-face events in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, “It was important to us to create a “digital twin” of our successful face-to-face format that has been hailed as world class and supported this year by the likes of SAP, Microsoft, Huawei, Oracle, ITU, Arm, Dell, Intel, UiPath and Blue Prism to name but a few. We had a much larger contingent of international companies that were able to join us via the convenience of the virtual expo hall and our international pavilions hosted by the Dutch, Israeli, Swiss, and French Embassies in South Africa.”

Bradshaw added, “The AI Media Group, organisers of AI Expo Africa, would like to thank all sponsors, speakers, and delegates who supported and attended the event. Without their commitment and leap of faith in these challenging times this edition would not have been possible.”

Attendance

Headline numbers for AI Expo Africa 2020 ONLINE were as follows: • 2112 Registered Delegates at Live Show (2413 including OnDemand show)

Diversity & inclusivity

• Delegate diversity - 32% Female, 68% Male • 80 speakers from 13 countries represented in the speaking programme which had 40 hours of talks (30% Female, 70% Male) • 34 ePosters presented for six Innovation Challenges from seven countries ( 45% Female, 55% Male) • A total of 45 countries were represented at the show over the 2 Live Show days

Delegate Feedback

Roy Bannister Co-Founder of AI Media Group stated, “Overall feedback from sponsors and delegates has been amazing, the inclusion of many more exhibitors via the show’s international pavilions and online format was a big contributor to this year’s massive success.”

A delegate survey conducted by AI Media Group showed that 97% of respondents said they enjoyed themselves and learnt something new, this while 95% felt the show met all their expectations, with 98% of respondents stating they would come to AI Expo Africa 2021.

Bannister concluded, “Many companies who

4TH QUARTER 2020

‘Largest to date’

• 77,557 Platform visits at Live Show (82,388 including OnDemand show) • 502 unique companies attended the event

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Keynote speakers included: • MTN Nigeria CTO & Data Science Nigeria founder Olubayo Adekanmbi • SAP Global Senior Director – Industries & Customer Advisory, Rudeon Snell • ITU Head of Strategic Engagement, Frederic Werner • UiPath Chief Evangelist, Guy Kirkwood • CLEVVA CEO Ryan Falkenberg • Microsoft Global Director Artificial Intelligence, Mohammad Albataineh • InstaDeep Tunisia CEO and co-founder Karim Beguir • Intel AI Sales Director & STEM Education Advocate Monica Livingston • Intel Strategic Alliances and AI Programmes Director Radhika Anand • Dell Technologies Systems Engineering Director, Greg McDonald • NVIDIA Head of Emerging Areas, Kate Kallot

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couldn’t have attended due to travel costs and the logistical admin associated with face-to-face events and COVID saw this as a clear advantage of the online format. The convenience of being able to watch talks with live Q&A chat and the ability to watch talks at any time was well-received and valued.

The online event experience also offers unique features and opportunities that aren’t available in traditional formats. These included real-time analytics, bespoke reporting, and a 30 day show archive.”

Here’s what some of our delegates and speakers had to say: “Enjoyed the consistent ethical discussion around impact of AI to progress our society” Capitec Bank, SA “Amazed at the local talent and resources available” OUTsurance, SA “We are super proud of being part of this” INTERPOL, Netherlands “As an online event, it was very good” ABSA, SA “Enjoying my first virtual conference from my office at home” Data Dialect, SA “Congratulations Dr Nick Bradshaw and Roy Bannister with

4TH QUARTER 2020

“I was impressed with what you have accomplished.

Well done!” Stellenbosch University, SA “AI Expo Africa bar none, is one of the best online conference experiences I have had!” TIES, USA “AI Expo Africa was amazing!” UNESCO, Switzerland “Thanks for hosting such an amazing conference, showcasing pure African talent” AfricaNova Solutions, SA “It was above my expectations” Social Lab, Germany “Superb event, with great interaction and engagement. Excellent agenda and networking opportunities” SAP, SA “Amazing event. Thanks Nick and Roy. This is great for Africa” Afya Rekod, Kenya “I would like to commend you and your team on a wonderful Expo.” Engineering Human Performance, SA Missed the show? The AI Expo Africa 2020 talks are now all available on our AI TV YouTube Channel. Those looking to secure a place on the 2021 Super Early Bird list can do so by signing up for our Super Early Bird news mailer at http://aiexpoafrica.com/registration This will guarantee early access to the show, news and offers for AI Expo Africa 2021. ai

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going online. Well done!” SAIS, SA “So so so proud of my team at LUMA Law thank you to AI Expo Africa” LUMA Law, SA “Very diverse themes addressing important issues” AIMS, Ghana “Well worth a visit to this awesome online venue!

Kudos!” Nvidia, UK “Microsoft Labs were flippin awesome!” Drone Eye Technology, SA “The Microsoft AI Lab was informative” University of JHB, SA “Great job” Allan Gray, SA “Congrats for putting such a great event” UN Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, Switzerland “My first fully digital conference was amazing” Kudoti, SA “Well done on another cracking event” Ocular Technologies, SA “Very informative, exciting times ahead” Redflank Consulting, SA “Awesome virtual expo! Thank you for bringing Analytics & 4IR minds together” Liberty Group, SA

GHANAIAN AI SOFTWARE FIRM

Nokwary wins 2020 Ecobank Fintech Challenge Nokwary, a Ghanaian AI software firm is the winner of this year’s Ecobank Fintech Challenge.

ECOBANK CROWNED Nokwary the winner of the annual fintech challenge in August for its innovative WhatsApp-based banking service which allows users to carry out transactions through voice commands and texts through an intelligent conversational chatbot.

Nokwary received a $10 000 cash prize and was inducted into the Ecobank Fintech Fellowship which will enable the startup the opportunity to explore deals, integration and commercial partnerships with the Ecobank Group which has a footprint across

35 African countries.

The Accra-based startup was founded in 2019 by Dennis Asamoah Owusu (pictured) and Obenewaa Okoe. Nokwary specialises in facial recognition, speech recognition for English and native Ghanaian languages like Twi, and conversational user interfaces like chatbots and voice UI. Nokwary’s WhatsApp-based banking service also enables users to turn their WhatsApp into a merchant point of sale (POS). Checkout a demo of the product in this YouTube video. ai

BACE Group’s Charlette N’Guessan first woma to win Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation

4TH QUARTER 2020

Charlette N’guessan, the 26-year old Cote D’Ivorian co-founder and CEO of Ghana-based fintech BACE Group in September won the Royal Academy of Engineering’s prestigious 2020 Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation. The feat saw N’guessan become the first ever woman to win the Africa Prize, as well as the first winner based in Ghana.

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BACE GROUP has developed BACE API, a software that uses facial recognition and artificial intelligence to verify identities remotely.

The software — which can be integrated into existing apps and systems — is aimed at financial institutions and other industries that rely on identity verification when providing services.

The BACE API software does not need special hardware, it uses a phone or computer’s built-in camera to record or capture live images or short videos which are then used to detect whether the image is of a real person, or a photo of an existing image. In contrast to global AI systems, BACE API has been developed specifically to identify Africans.

The Royal Academy of Engineering said in a statement that N’Guessan and her co-founders Samuel Sowah Mensah and Ugwu Arinze Christopher developed the software in 2018 after research they did during their studies revealed that Ghana’s banks have a significant problem with identity fraud and cybercrime. The research estimated that approximately $400 million is spent annually by Ghanaian financial institutions to identify their customers.

In partnership with a data controller that deals with certified government-issued identity documents, BACE API has access to Ghanaian passports and other identity documents to use during its verification processes. Two financial institutions are already using the software to verify customers’ identities, and

the software is being tested on an event platform to confirm attendee registrations.

During the global pandemic, BACE API has emerged as a viable alternative to the in-person verification processes used by most businesses, such as fingerprints or personal appearances.

Companies can now authenticate and onboard new or existing customers without ever meeting them.

The Africa Prize mentorship and training has helped the team focus more on their business development, and since being shortlisted, the team has defined strategies to improve BACE API’s market position. They have also signed key partnerships with local financial institutions, improved the accuracy of the model, and reduced the verification time.

“We are very proud to have Charlette N’Guessan and her team win this award,” said Rebecca Enonchong, Africa Prize judge and Cameroonian entrepreneur. “It is essential to have technologies like facial recognition based on African communities, and we are confident their innovative technology will have far reaching benefits for the continent.”

N’guessan was awarded the first prize of £25 000 at a virtual awards ceremony held on 3 September. N’guessan is among the 83 authors of the FINTECH Circle’s The AI Book in which she wrote about AI opportunities in the African financial sector.

Read about how she was selected out of 170 applicants in this Synapse story

FinChatBot raises $1.6m for Expansion in Europe, West Africa South African conversational AI startup FinChatBot is looking to expand into West Africa and Europe after the firm announced in November that it raised $1.6-million from a round led by French investment firm Saviu Ventures, and early investors South Africa’s Kalon Venture Partners, and Mauritius-based Compass Venture Capital.

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FINCHATBOT, WHICH develops conversational AI solutions for financial services providers, was founded in 2016 by CEO Antoine Paillusseau and Romain Diaz. The new investment brings the total amount of venture capital the startup has raised since launch to about $2.7-million.

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SA venture BriteGaze to launch R500-million AI fund BriteGaze, a South African venture launched in September by former Liquid Telecom South Africa CEO Reshaad Sha, is set to launch a R500-million AI-focused fund in the coming months.

BRITEGAZE FUND One will invest in businesses from South Africa and around the continent that are building capabilities around AI. BriteGaze will use its expertise in the telecommunications sector to target companies solving complex challenges that the industry faces in optimising and growing their businesses.

The firm announced in October that it had completed a feasibility study for the launch of the fund, and that it aims to meet its R500-million funding target in the “coming months”. ai

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MEET THE WINNERS OF THE AI Expo Africa 2020 Innovation Wall Challenge

4TH QUARTER 2020

One of the highlights of AI Expo Africa 2020 ONLINE was the Innovation Wall poster challenge which the French Embassy in South Africa this year sponsored along with Ocean Hub Africa, the 4th Industrial Revolution Incubator, French South African Tech Labs, Engie, EDF, Dassault Systems, the Embassy of Switzerland in South Africa, together with the Department of Science and Innovation.

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THE CHALLENGE was organised across six challenge categories, namely: The Ocean Hub Fishing Challenge: Using AI to prevent breaches of fishing regulations and illegal fishing The 4IR Incubator Social Challenge: Using AI to help improve service and health delivery in disadvantaged communities The FSAT Labs UX Challenge: Using AI to improve customer service experience & satisfaction for industry and government The Engie Energy Challenge : Using AI to map urban, unconnected areas and informal settlements for essential service delivery The EDF / Dassault Systèmes Challenge: Using Artificial Intelligence to improve Energy Efficiency The Africa 4IR Open Challenge: Open to startups and academics to showcase any AI related product, service or applied research Mathieu Bécue, Attaché for Innovation Embassy of France in South Africa, stated that the embassy decided to sponsor the Innovation Wall this year along with its partners from France, South Africa and Switzerland as it reflects its wish to encourage and support initiatives from young companies and research teams from universities not only in South Africa, but across the region.

“We are already delighted with the results with 34 posters being showcased this year from innovators from South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Tunisia plus countries from outside the region such as Russia, Iran and India – all working on Innovations that have direct impact on problems and solutions for Africa.

AI Expo Africa 2020 marked the first time the Innovation Wall Challenge has been held online. Nick Bradshaw, CEO AI Media Group and co-founder fo AI Expo Africa said, “This is a unique format for an innovation challenge and we are very happy to be working with the Embassy of France in South Africa

on this challenge. Over the last two years we have built a strong partnership with the team and they are supporting innovation in 4IR in Africa for both startups and academia. We ran the poster wall last year to show industry what is happening with applied R&D from African Universities and it was a big success.The French team have helped us take it to the next level and the results are interesting,” he added.

No winners were selected for the Ocean Hub Fishing Challenge, and Engie Energy Challenge as no award or posters met the criteria for the challenges. However, the winners for the other four challenges are: 4IR Incubator Social Challenge: 1st Neo Moloi, COO, Sawubona Mycelium, South Africa 2nd Adivhaho Bridgette Mphaphuli, Research Student, University of Johannesburg, South Africa FSAT Labs UX Challenge: Winner: Grace Gichanga, founder, Masenze Strategic Advisors (Luma Law) EDF / Dassault Systèmes Challenge: Dean Barrett, Researcher, University of Witwatersrand, South Africa The Africa 4IR Open Challenge: 1st Most novel technology R&D: Oluoch Willies, Masters student, Hubei University of Technology 2nd Most novel technology R&D: Akivan Kemraj, CEO, Empire Partner Foundation, South Africa 1st Best business application: Esther Hoogstad, CEO and cofounder, Enlabeler, South Africa 2nd Best business application: Tshepo Ntokoane, IT manager, Haramber Group, South Africa

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ZINDI LAUNCHES

Recruitment Platform Cape Town based data science platform Zindi launched a recruitment platform on the first day of AI Expo Africa 2020 ONLINE in September to help organisations around the world find the data science talent they need. Zindi will draw on its community of more than 18 000 data scientists across Africa and the rest of the world to match companies and organisations with the right talent for the job at hand.

4TH QUARTER 2020

“ZINDI HAS the largest community of data scientists in Africa, which makes us uniquely positioned to help organisations find the talent they are looking for,” says Celina Lee, CEO of Zindi.

“We are proud to be pioneering a data-driven, evidence-based approach to data science recruitment in Africa to ensure you get candidates with the proven skills you need.”

Primarily a data science competition platform, Zindi launched zindi.africa/jobs in response to what it said was a clear need from organisations operating in Africa. Many of the companies Zindi works with have expressed their frustrations in not being able to find the right talent in Africa for their needs through traditional channels.

On the other hand, Zindi has in just two years accumulated the largest pool of talented, passionate data scientists in Africa, many of whom are looking for work: 55% of Zindi users are actively looking for their next professional opportunity. These users cover a wide range of data science

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skills and languages, and 75% have a bachelor’s degree or higher qualification. Many are new to the data science field, but approximately half of them boast more than a year of data science experience.

Zindi data scientists also have a demonstrated entrepreneurial, can-do mindset. More than 50% of our users are engaged in or thinking about creating a startup within the machine learning and AI space. This positions them uniquely as self-driven candidates keen to make a difference to the continent and to the organisation they are a part of.

Zindi said in a statement in September that is proud to have already helped place several candidates with its partners around Africa. This includes recruiting a data scientist for a COVID-19 response project in the Democratic Republic of Congo for GSMA, and placing the winners of a recent Zindi competition to implement their air quality forecasting solution for AirQo in Uganda. ai

Zindi is building AI in Africa

16,000+ data scientists male 26% female

35+

21%

25 - 34

51%

18 -24 -2 24

28% 2 8% 76% users in 45 African countries

$175,000+ awarded in 60 0 competitions 40Â awesome ambassadors in 20 countries 140,000+ pageviews per week ek 5,000+ Twitter followers

Meet the Inaugural Cohort of the Africa AI Accelerator

4TH QUARTER 2020

The Africa AI Accelerator, which is hosted by Ghana Tech Lab in partnership with Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) initiatives FAIR Forward and d Make-IT in Africa together with IBM in August welcomed its inaugural cohort of 11 AI startups.

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THE ACCELERATOR, which aims to support the next generation of African AI startups from Ghana, Rwanda, South Africa and Uganda, was designed by GTL to scale local innovations in the field of AI, machine learning and data science.

The six-month long programme will provide participating startups with technical product development and business development support through a blended accelerator model with a virtual and physical interface.

The accelerator programme has also been structured in a way that encourages collaboration between startups and corporates, commercial partners, and investors.

The inaugural Africa AI Accelerator is made up of three startups each from Rwanda, Ghana and Uganda, as well as two South African startups. They are: Aqua Safi (Rwanda): Developed a smart water monitoring device which checks for water quality.

The team includes founder Eric Safari and Fiston Munyampeta.

Chil AI (Uganda): Chil AI Group uses machine learning and AI to offer breast and cervical oncology services, automated consultation and an AI-powered healthcare smart-saving scheme. The startup’s team includes founder Shamin Nabuuma Kaliisa and Agaba Peter.

Congretype (South Africa): Congretype, which was founded by Tendani Madondo, is developing a proactive pest management programme to target a wide range of pests, which have an impact on food production yields and health.

Data Systems (Rwanda): Data Systems, which was founded by Nadia Uwamahoro, focuses on building software-as-a-service applications for corporates and edutech clients. The startup has developed a business process outsourcing (BPO) market pace called Giraict and an e-learning platform called eshuri.

Diagnosify (Ghana): Diagnosify, whose team includes Michael Asante and Samuel Abbey, uses AI to diagnose and identify skin diseases.

Global Auto Systems (Uganda): Global Auto Systems aims to use AI and cloud computing to improve patient

outcomes, while reducing the total cost of care.

Openbank (South Africa): Openbank has developed Trusource, a secure platform with AI models, helping banks and third party providers to move from banking as a service to banking as a lifestyle. The startup achieves this by improving payments capabilities, consent protections, and by expanding open banking into open financing. The startup was founded in July this year by Lavina Ramkissoon.

Kwanso (Ghana): Kwanso has developed an AI tool which integrates into CCTV systems to assess congestion or overcrowding and spacing (social/physical distancing) to produce an innovative physical distancing index (PDI) and actionable self assessment reports for companies and individual business owners. The startup has also developed a queue management system as well as an app that identifies road accident locations Tabiri Analytics (Rwanda): Cybersecurity firm Tabiri Analytics is building the first affordable, comprehensive and automated cyber security-as-a-service solution for enterprises in underserved markets using machine learning. The startup’s team includes co-founder Victor Kagimu and Nancy Lubalo.

Wekebere (Uganda): This health social enterprise is working on an innovative healthcare solution that gives expectant mothers in low-resource settings the healthy lives they deserve. Wekebere combines wearable devices with data analytics to increase access to care, provide personalised feedback to mothers, and to help doctors earlier predict and manage pregnancy complications.

At the centre of its solution is a prenatal wearable that tracks critical health parameters of maternal and foetal health. The Wekebere team includes Tashobya Stephen and Kiconco Bendadine.

Xpendly (Ghana): Xpendly is a personal finance management app that enables young African millennials to manage their finances in one place, build alternative credit profiles with their financial activity while accessing tailored financial products that help them save and invest.

The Xpendly team includes founders Elorm Axolu and EbiYaa Kwaw. ai

HSRC, FACEBOOK ANNOUNCE Grant Awardees of Ethics, Human Rights in AI Research Initiative

breakthrough for us to recast the public procurement research agenda towards the social impact agenda. We believe that taxpayer resources must address the aspects that affect the poorest and the most vulnerable in the populations.”

Tom Peter Migua Ogada (Kenya): Artificial Intelligence or Jobs: Which way forward for Africa. For Tom and his colleagues, “this award will enable the African Centre for Technology in Kenya to jumpstart policy research and development in artificial intelligence to effectively contribute to policy discussion on socialeconomic and ethical considerations of large-scale deployment of AI in Africa.”

Adekemi Omotubora (Nigeria): What Value is in the Code?

Human Rights by Design in AI Governance. Adekemi has stated that the award of this grant “is a huge boost for our research into human rights-driven AI designs and will help us to further understand how health technologies promote equality and inclusiveness in society.”

Donrich Thaldar (South Africa): Artificial intelligence in healthcare in South Africa. For Donrich and his team: “AI has the potential to improve healthcare, but also entails some ethical and legal concerns. With this grant my research group and I will develop practical, solution-driven recommendations that can be implemented within a South African context.”

The HSRC said in a statement on 2 November that it anticipates that the the work to be undertaken by the awardees will go some way toward responding to the complex questions regarding ethics and social impact which have arisen from the growing reliance on artificial intelligence (AI) systems in Africa.

“AI is having, and set to have, huge impacts on the African region. We are delighted to be supporting such important interdisciplinary work that will generate new knowledge around what AI means for human rights and ethics in our African context,” said HSRC Senior Research Specialist Dr Rachel Adams.

Dr Ololade Shyllon, Facebook Privacy Policy Manager for the Middle East and Africa, said that the company believes in the value of localised and innovative research to help shape the design and governance of AI in accordance with ethics and human rights. “That is why we are delighted to support independent African research to reinvigorate current academic discourse on what AI, Ethics and human rights can and should mean for Africa and globally,” she added.

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THE EIGHT were selected by a seven-person advisory board comprised of Dr Noberto Andrade, Facebook; Dr Buhle Khanyile, HSRC; Titi Akinsanmi, Google; Dr Ololade Shyllon, Facebook; Wairagala Wakabi, CIPESA; Professor Emma Ruttkamp-Bloem, University of Pretoria; and Dr Rachel Adams, HSRC. The awardees hail from eight African countries and will work in co-ordination with the HSRC on the project. The eight and their research topics are: Elefelious Getachew Belay (Ethiopia): Socio-technical considerations for the design and development of AI in Africa.

On receiving the outcome of his proposal, Elefelious said that “This award accords a great deal of enthusiasm to my enduring desire to explore more and achieve more in my research career.”

Radha Upadhyaya (Kenya): The Ethics and Social Impact of Automated Mobile Credit Lending in Kenya. Radha and her team responded to the award, saying: “We’re really excited to use this funding to investigate how best to promote transparency and responsibility with the mobile credit lending sector of Kenya, a topic that will expand the research and work we are doing across our varied fields: development economics, history/anthropology, and technology and the law. This research is especially timely in light of growing calls for greater regulation of automated risk assessment and credit lending in Kenya.”

Thompson Chengeta (Zimbabwe): Re-examining the jus ad bellum – jus in bello dichotomy from an African freedom ethics perspective: Towards a comprehensive response to autonomous weapon systems. For Thompson, he commented that, “I am extremely pleased to receive this research award.

The grant will make it possible to increase African scholarship on one of the critical topics on AI and human rights. Given the international community’s current goal of inclusion and diversity in framing AI governing frameworks, this grant is very timely in my efforts to contribute towards that goal.”

Samah Elsayed (Egypt) The Cairo Charter: Urban AI in Africa for Social & Environmental Justice. Samaha and her team commented that: “The Cairo Charter will formulate a framework for advancing justice-driven AI in smart city planning and development in Cairo, across the African continent, and beyond.

We are looking forward to developing a series of principles and protocols for Urban AI in Cairo that focus on applications for ecological and social justice”.

Pross Oluka Nagitta (Uganda): Buying Ethical AI solutions for government: Why is ethical awareness in public procurement important in the deployment of ethical AI solutions in Uganda & Kenya? Pross and her team responded to the outcome of their proposal submission by saying: “This funding is an important

4TH QUARTER 2020

The Human Science Research Council (HSRC) of South Africa and Facebook have announced the eight awardees that will share a $200 000 grant provided by the social media firm as part of a collaborative project aimed at supporting interdisciplinary independent academic research across Africa in the field of AI, ethics and human rights.

Kudoti Founder bags

BRICS Young Innovator Prize

4TH QUARTER 2020

Gift Lubele, the founder of Johannesburgbased waste management platform Kudoti in October pipped 19 competitors to emerge the winner of the BRICS Young Innovator Prize competition, netting $25 000 in prize money.

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THE COMPETITION, which is organised by the BRICS Young Scientist Forum and was this year held virtually, seeks to reward research and innovation in artificial intelligence, material science and environmental protection.

Lubele beat the other 19 competitors who hail from Brazil, India, China and South Africa. Lubele’s cloud-based platform which he founded in 2018, helps helps waste management and recycling companies to optimise their operations, making them more efficient and cost-effective, through the use of cutting-edge data collection tools. Kudoti -- isiZulu for “ in the trash” digitises and automates waste management operations from start to finish through SMS interactions and a webbased interface. In addition, the platform also helps waste companies to improve their client management by enabling them to communicate with and keep track of their clients. The company is also looking to expand its offering to enable users to make recyclable waste transactions, and to grow this into a marketplace for recyclable materials.

Lubele told the Department of Science and Technology (DST) that the digital platform provides an end-to-end solution, replacing manual and paper-based work with a simple-touse, effective digital solution. He added that the company’s goal is to create technology tools that empower companies,

individuals and governments to better manage waste and recycle more, utilising the capacities that are in place for waste collection and recycling.

The DST reported that startup is currently working with a number of companies and organisations across Africa, including a plastic recycling centre in Uganda which has recycled over 75 000kg of plastic since 2018.

The startup has over the years racked a handful of awards.

In October Kudoti was selected as one of 25 finalists for the UNOPS Global Innovation Challenge which will see it participate in a bootcamp at the UNOPS Global Innovation Centre in Kobe, Japan. Kudoti, in the same month, was also named the global winner of the Climate and environmental impact category at the 2020 Annual Investment Meeting which is hosted by the United Arab Emirates Ministry of Economy.

In March 2020, Fast Company South Africa named Kudoti one of the 25 Most Innovative Companies in the country.

Last year, Lubele was listed as one of Fast Company SA’s top 20 entrepreneurs under the age of 30. He has also won recognition from the United Nations and the President of Mauritius. Check out Lubele’s AI Expo Africa 2020 talk -- Waste Management Intelligence as a service: Building a circular waste economy through data --here ai

Sell Faster and More to your Digital Customer The industry average conversion rate from qualified leads to sales is around 2%. This conversion rate is so low because businesses are drowning in data and are unable to utilise the human touch in a smart way. Engagements are too late and disconnected from the journey. Sales teams can’t have meaningful interactions as the right data is too hard to find.

In this demo you will learn how Artificial Intelligence can help by predicting outcomes and triggering engagements with the right sales resource in real time, at the right time, with the right prospect.

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SA Government to train 50 000 Data Scientists

The South African government is looking to train 50 000 data scientist in the country, the country’s Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams has said.

people’s needs” she. said.

NDABENI-ABRAHAMS — speaking during a webinar “I think governments should come up with clear on Women in STEM in Africa and the COVID 19 strategies in terms of human capacity development Pandemic held on 29 September by the United and investing in stem,” added Ndabeni-Abrahams.

Nations Office for South-South Cooperation In October the National Electronic Media — mentioned the country’s skills development Institute of South Africa (NEMISA) and the programme and explained the South African Department of Communications and Digital government had conducted a skills gap analysis Technologies opened applications for the on digital skills in the country, and subsequently programme. The department explained that the developed a national digital skills development strategy which she said was also based on the South Africa’s Minister initiative will mainly focus on young people who did not finish school, school learners who could not insights from the report by the Presidential of Communications enter tertiary education, TVETs, students who had Commission of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. and Digital failed to graduate , as well as graduates who could “That is why I’m proud to announce right now Technologies Stella not find employment. to you that as part of the partnerships that we Ndabeni-Abrahams The South African government in 2018 have built, we will be training about 50 0000 data embarked on a plan to equip up to one million scientists in South Africa. This is a partnership that young people with skills in data science by 2030. we have done with the Department of Higher Education and Business technology publication ITWeb reported in Coursera – the online platform.

October that the Department of Communications and Digital “We then reached out to the industry to say can you provide Technologies, in partnership with the Media Information and the devices for them and then we are looking at connecting Communication Technologies Sector Education and Training those. This is what we are saying that when we work together Authority is working together with other stakeholders to train we are able to minimise the impact (sic) and also see the great young people in software development, cyber security, robotics, impact that we can have for for the effective execution because artificial intelligence and in drones.

I get to benefit as government and at the same time the private In September, 135 participants of the government training sector gets to benefit because there will be more innovators that initiative graduated a 12-month data science course. ai will help the private sector be innovative and responsive to the

4TH QUARTER 2020

SA Quantum Computing Researcher awarded Google PhD Fellowship

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South African quantum computing researcher Amira Abbas was in October announced as one of 53 Google PhD Fellowship Programme

THE SOUTH African researcher was the only African recipient selected for this year’s fellowship.

Google launched the PhD Fellowship Programme in 2009 to recognise and support outstanding graduate students who seek to influence the future of technology by pursuing exceptional research in computer science, and other related fields.

The fellowship, which is now in its twelfth year, has helped support approximately 500 graduate students in North America, Europe, Africa, Australia, East Asia and India.

Abbas was formerly a consultant researcher with the the UKZN’s Quantum Research Group where she focused on the intersection of Machine Learning and Quantum Computing. Earlier this year she joined IBM in Switzerland as a Quantum Computing Research Intern.

Abbas’ AI Expo Africa 2019 interview is the most popular on AI TV with over 3 100 views. In the interview, she discusses her journey from finance into the world of quantum computing. Check it out here ai

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4TH QUARTER 2020

EXPERIENCES ARE EVEN MORE important in a Socially Distant World

Manage them Intelligently

It would be easy to conclude that the hype surrounding the Experience Economy is over, following the world-changing events of 2020. Physcial distancing has been mandated by governments across the globe, consumers are hunkering down in the safety of their homes, rarely venturing out and digitial engagement, along with touchless technologies, have exponentially increased. However, it can be argued that in fact, quite the opposite is true; that the Experience Economy, now, is more important than ever before. And here’s why. As companies try to connect with their consumers, employees and partners; as they try and meet the unmet and unarticulated needs of their stakeholders, the experiences they deliver, at this critical inflection point of our history, will be more important than ever to their long term success.

4TH QUARTER 2020

By Rudeon Snell, Global Senior Director: Industries & Customer Advisory at SAP

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AS A CONCEPT, the Experience Economy is not new.

A 1998 article in Harvard Business Review titled ‘Welcome to the Experience Economy’ highlighted how leading companies understood that “the next competitive battleground lies in staging experiences.” Products and services were no longer seen as differentiators.

By 2017, McKinsey had declared ‘Experiences are king’ as their research confirmed how consumers had gradually shifted their expenditure from products to experiences. In their report, McKinsey found that personal consumption expenditure on experiencerelated services had grown 1.5 times faster than total personal consumption spending and nearly four times faster than expenditure on products.

Gartner even declared that 2019 would be the year that experience overtake product and price as the main competitive differentiators for brands and businesses. Positive, hyper-personalised experiences were now required to sweeten the deal for consumers.

Rise of Intelligent Experiences

In line with the rise of exponential technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Big Data and the Internet of Thing, the concept of the Experience Economy has also evolved over the past few years. Today, successful businesses manage their experiences as a

core strategic business capability. They have seen how customers are willing to pay more for experiences.

They understand that the value needle has shifted.

This new approach is powered by Intelligence.

Intelligent Experience Management leverages the power of exponential technologies - AI, IoT, advanced analytics - to drive a more optimal customer, employee, product and brand experiences. This relentless focus on value delivery through enhanced experiences, is what will allow enterprises to win in today’s market.

And these exponential technologies powering differentiated business capabilities, are vital to the long term success of enterprises, because of the volume and nature of data that informs modern Experience Economy strategies. Traditionally, organisations relied heavily on operational data - revenue, inventory, suppliers, workforce - to make decisions, but today they need insights from a different type of data to augment the value their provide to their customers; they need experience data.

Experience data provides insights into the sentiment and emotional aspects that influence a customer, employee, partner or supplier decisions towards a brand. In short, operational data reveals what is happening in an organisation, and experience data reveals why and how it is happening.

An Intelligent Experience Management strategy would

Banks’ relationships with their customers have largely been built on the basis of compliance: often a boxticking exercise that ensures the bank’s conduct is in line with a robust set of rules and standards and that the consumer adheres to a strict set of principles.

This dynamic prevailed until the emergence of the internet and other digital technologies that created new channels for customer engagement. According to a recent Qualtrics study, of all the time customers spent interacting with their bank, 47% of that time was via online channels, and less than a third of that time in person. The same study found that ‘Poor Service’ was the second-most important factor in consumers considering leaving their bank for a competitor.

The banking industry is extremely competitive. Most banks generally offer the same types of products and

Insurers are also taking note

Insurance provider Allianz recently leveraged Qualtrics, the experience management platform, to collect experience data from customers in 22 countries. Using the platform to filter and priorities insights by location, and function, Allianz could empower their customerfacing teams with the certainty to know what action to take to deliver a seamless and positive experience at every step of each customers’ engagement with the company.

Allianz has also used the experience data to develop entirely new products to help protect businesses from emerging risks, improve its reputation for quality consultations and become integral business partners to its customers, building lasting loyalty.

Financial services companies that have not invested in transforming their customer and employee experiences will be left far behind their competitors in a post-2020 world. Leaving experience management to chance is a recipe for failure.

Instead, organisations should seek ways to improve their collection and processing of experience data and combine that with operational data to make informed decisions over the future of their companies. ai

4TH QUARTER 2020

Experience Economy transforming banks, insurers

services. The real differentiation lies in the experience that customers have when interacting with the bank.

And the cost of a poor experience in this industry has become increasingly significant: a 2018 survey

by Forrester Research found that, for every one-point decline in its customer experience score, a multichannel bank loses $124-million in potential revenue.

Banks, competing with more agile fin-techs and a growing ecosystem of non-traditional financial services providers - including the powerful telco industry - have taken note of this and have been making significant investment into their Experience Economy strategies.

By 2018, McKinsey found that three out of four of the world’s 50 largest banks were committed to some form of customer experience transformation.

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measure and track operational data and experience data and use AI in combination with other exponential technologies to construct and augment individualised profiles of customers, employees, brands or products.

Predictive or Prescriptive actions can then be taken in order to optimally drive outcomes that matter.

Put another way, instead of reacting to problems when they occur, increasing the ‘experience gap’, companies can now get ahead of the curve and address challenges before they have a lasting negative impact on the organisation.

The impact and advantage of this type of capability will be indispensable to organisations as they adapt to changing customer behaviour in the wake of the pandemic. While adoption of digital services has exponentially increased across the globe, the events of 2020 and the resulting shift in consumer behaviour, will put additional pressure on organisations to transform how they engage with customer and employees.

And nowhere is this shift as apparent as in the financial services sector.

WHAT WILL THE WORLD of work look like in 2035?

From artificial intelligence (AI) playing a central role in business decision making, remote work , to an augmented workforce, and centralised organisations — these are some of the possibilities of how work will have changed in 15 years, according to a new study on the future of work.

THE STUDY, titled Work 2035: How people and technology will pioneer new ways of working, was carried out by Citrix Systems in collaboration with Oxford Systems over the course of a year.

The study is based on a two-part research study combining alternative futures scenario planning and robust opinion research among over 1500 academics, business leaders and employees across the US and Europe.

Work 2035 aims to examine alternate versions of the future of work in 2035, and how people and technology will work together to create value.

permanent employees and more on “swarms” of on-demand specialist professionals who will be enhanced with technology.

Remote working will be made more effective and efficient by technology tools like virtual reality (VR) which will enable people in different parts of the world to train and collaborate in the same environment.

This scenario is informed from data from the survey which showed that 66% of employees and 54% of business leaders interviewed in the course of the study believe that humans with chips embedded in their bodies will have an “ unfair advantage” in the labour market.

In addition, 60% of employees surveyed expect that governments, in reaction to a decline in permanent employment, and the rise of on-demand working patterns, will look to regulate labour practices more stringently.

4TH QUARTER 2020

Platform Plugins

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The Platform Plugins scenario envisions work being characterised by replaced workers and distributed organisations. Under this scenario, technologies like AI, machine learning, data capture, and analytics tools will on one hand enable smaller businesses to take on bigger competitors, but on the other hand will enable companies to “drastically downsize” their permanent human workforce. Consequently, specialists — often freelancers — who can build, tweak or check and manage these technologies will be in demand.

This scenario is informed from research from the study which showed that 60% of employees believe permanent employees will have become rare by 2035. In addition, 67% of professionals surveys think that by 2035, most high growth companies will operate on a platform model. The study also found that 63% of professionals believe that technology will level the playing field for smaller firms , which will result in niche specialist businesses.

The study identifies four alternative futures of work and imagines how technology will likely change the relationship between people and technology, and how that will influence productivity.

The four scenarios identified by the study are: Freelance Frontiers, Platform Plugins, Powered Productives, and Automation Corporations.

Freelance Frontiers

The Freelance Frontiers scenario envisions work being characterised by augmented workers and distributed organisations. Under this scenario, companies will rely less on

Powered Productives

The Powered Productives scenario envisions the future of work being characterised by augmented workers and centralised organisations. Successful integration between humans and technology will see corporations benefit from increased productivity. The integration of tech and humans will also give organisations and business leaders access to more data on their workforces and workplaces.

This scenario will see companies who are more successful at integrating humans and technology, and have the most adaptable workers perform better which the study cautions might lead to monopolies in some sectors.

Continued on page 33

Our Lessons Learnt as a Data-Science Team It is widely quoted that to date over 80% of data science related projects generally do not make it past an experimental phase into production. Nevertheless, it is also reported that executives place continued value on these projects despite their low implementation rate. An obvious question to ask is why such a disparity between implied value and tangible results exist?

provide actionable insights. Our projects are therefore a mix between research and development. It took us a while to get to a state of congruence, some of our valuable lessons learnt are summarised below

Establish a sense of identity

As a new team in the business, it was important to take a step back and reflect on where we could add the most value.

Being performance driven, we initially put a lot of pressure on ourselves to deliver something tangible that could be used by business. We started off almost entirely delivery focused, not assessing what distinguishes us from the other IT teams.

Taking a step back made us realise that there is a lot of value in research-driven tasks. We started setting-up regular chats with various business units to understand what they were struggling with and where we could help. Soon word was out that there was a nimble team with a cross-functional capability.

While establishing a sense of identity is important, we found that setting the right expectations is crucial. Machine Learning

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OUR JOURNEY as a data science team has been no exception.

Looking back over the past three years provides a trail of valuable lessons learnt to unlock true value as a data science team within an established corporate. Although we recognise that every data science team follows an invariably different journey, we believe there are some universal truths to ensure optimal value is delivered.

To start off, it is important to provide some context for why and how the data science team at Allan Gray was formed.

Allan Gray is an investment management company with the aim of creating long-term wealth for our clients, while placing immense value on client service. The data science team was formed to innovate in the retail space within the business.

The team formally sits in the retail IT department, with a cross-functional capability into the rest of the business in areas such as: operations, distribution, product development, risk, and client experience. Our team essentially focuses on identifying areas in the business where leveraging a data science capability can for example optimise a process or

4TH QUARTER 2020

By the Allan Gray Data Science Team

is not required for every problem; some problems require rudimentary analytics to yield the desired output, while others require a combination of both. We soon realised that we required a team project policy document to better understand what stakeholders required. This document essentially determines whether the project is more of a business intelligence problem, a robotic process automation task or systems integration task. It is also important to make it clear that there is often a trade-off in accuracy depending on the type of approach you implement. Machine learning and data science are often used quite loosely in a business context, with the misconception that employing these may magically solve complex problems. Be open and honest with regards to what data science is and is not.

Ensure there is buy-in from executives

It is likely an executive decision to start a data science team within an established corporate. The reasons behind building the data science capability may differ from company to company.

The reasons could include a strategic intent, experimentation, and innovation. Some companies provide a data science service or product as the core of their business offering. Our team is different in the sense that the business can operate without us.

What we provide is supplementary to the rest of the business.

This provides us with more freedom to experiment and to innovate where possible. Our team has regular check-ins with a steering committee where we can share the latest developments in our field and what we have been working on. These sessions allow the executives from the various departments to share idea and helps us, as a data science team, see the bigger picture.

The output of these meetings consists of a short- and long-term roadmap, thus ensuring there is a shared vision for the projects we will work on.

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Educate and share ideas

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Every week our department hosts Tech Thursday. This is a great platform to share ideas with the wider department and potentially interested stakeholders. The format is quite informal: an hour-long slot, anyone from Allan Gray can attend and any tech related topics are welcomed. As a team we regularly give updates at this event with the aim of introducing general data science related topics and an overview of what we have been working on for the past couple of months. We generally get quite a bit of interest from other departments because they attended these events. While presenting on work we have done, other potential stakeholders often get an aha moment and join the dots with how our teams could collaborate. Informal chats are just as valuable as presentations or formal meetings. A lot of our best ideas came from spontaneous chats in the canteen or while having a coffee.

These informal chats do not rely on a formal agenda or a business plan. This arguably allows for more creative thinking without the constraints of meeting a business requirement. As a team, we also learn a lot about the business from these chats while being able to efficiently share ideas.

Fail quickly

Often a lot of emphasis is placed on quick wins; this is important to demonstrate the initial capability of a team, especially when it is a new domain. However, the timeline of various projects may differ drastically. It is therefore important to

clearly define a definition of done as early as possible. Data science projects frequently go through many iterations, with no guarantee of success. We use a proof of concept phase to test whether it is feasible to take a project any further. This enables us to fail quickly and not waste valuable resources trying to force a solution. This is also coupled with setting the right expectations upfront; there is no guarantee that a data science approach would yield the desired outcome.

Research problems

Research forms a big part of what we do: we approach problems against the grain and with the intent of extracting novel insights from data. Various business units within Allan Gray approach us with a problem and we have come to the realisation that a sound approach is to reframe the problem into a research question using the scientific methodology.

The first, and arguably, most valuable step is to formulate a hypothesis for the problem. This allows both the data science team and business team to place a yardstick, which acts as a reference point to measure success or failure for a problem.

Doing more research also exposes the team to valuable domain knowledge that could potentially turn into a long-term project in the future.

Think long-term

It is important to develop solutions that may be improved incrementally, with a focus on feature engineering and enhancement. The reuse of models is important to ensure quick turn-around time in the future. It is thus important to keep functions as generic as possible with sufficient documentation to streamline the process of jumping between various projects. Some data science objectives may also seem unattainable in the short-term; there is value in recognising this. Currently, there may not be sufficient or the right kind of data for a project, but plan and ensure that you do not waste an opportunity now that may be valuable in the future.

Augmentation versus automation

Our team places immense value on augmentation. We acknowledge that automation could improve efficiency and reduce costs. However, keeping a human in the loop and focusing on augmentation has its own benefits. Firstly, there are various tasks a human simply does better than a machine. Providing augmented insights may free up time in a consultant’s day to focus on more valuable tasks and do less menial work. As a result, new human-defined insights may even be derived from the data. Secondly, the training of new consultants may be a lot faster, thus saving a business immense time- and financial-costs.

Keep it simple

A problem is as complicated as you make it. We try not to reinvent the wheel. Instead we use as many open-source packages as possible. We chose Python as our main programming language, mainly due to the many open-source machine learning libraries available. This allows us to focus more time and energy on understanding the problem, feature engineering and the system integration if the project makes it into production.

We still have a lot to learn as a team, but that is part of the fun ai

Work in 2035

Automation Corporations

The Automation Corporations scenario imagines the future of work being characterised by replaced workers and centralised organisations. Under this scenario firms which have control over the entire work process will be able to find new efficiencies and adopt new technologies faster, giving them an advantage over their competitors.

While permanent employment will prevail, human labour will become more replaceable as more and more roles become automated resulting in workers needing to keep training to stay relevant in the workplace.

HUAWEI CLOUD Inclusive AI Making Intelligence Per vasive

3RD QUARTER 2020

“The caveat is that workers must decide how they feel about their data being monitored and controlled by their employer,” the study points out.

The Powered Productives scenario is informed by data from the study which shows that 77% of professionals believe that by 2035 AI will “significantly speed-up” their decision making processed and enable them to be more productive.

In addition, 83% of professionals think that in 15 years’ time, workers will focus on more meaningful work as technology will enable the automation of repetitive and low-value tasks.

This scenario is informed by data from the study which indicates that 72% of professionals believe that by 2035 technology and AI will not only generate more revenue for organisations than human workers, but also absorb more of their firm’s annual operating costs.

AI investment will be the biggest driver of growth for their companies by 2035 say 75% of professionals surveyed for the study. In addition, 57% of professionals believe that AI could potentially make most business decisions in 15 years and will remove the need for traditional senior management teams.

So which of the four scenarios will we likely see in 2035 — what will the world of work look like in 15 years?

“Most business leaders anticipate a ‘Powered Productives’ world of strong corporate structures fuelled by a flourishing partnership between people and technology, while most employees foresee a much more fragmented ‘Platform Plugins’ world, with big corporates no longer dominant, and many roles replaced by technology,” says the study.

While the study is based on surveys and research carried out in the US and Europe, it’s a reflection of the general trend in which the world of work — fuelled by existing technologies — is headed. With Covid-19 having proven the efficacy of remote work, as well as hastened the pace of digital tranformation on the continent, one wonders which of these scenarios we’ll see take hold in Africa. ai

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Continued from page 30

14

REASONS WHY YOU SHOULD

Consider Automating your Trade Reporting Solution

Synthesis has been involved in the trade reporting space for almost two decades in some form or another. Head of Markets IT/ Treasury and Operations of the largest South African banks have approached us over these years to streamline JSE integration for Fixed Income Trade reporting. They wanted to avoid the hefty risks that come with manual integration. During this time, we have observed a number of key reasons why focussing on an automated trade reporting (as opposed to manual) approach can be invaluable to clients:

By Steyn Basson, Synthesis Divisional Director

4TH QUARTER 2020

1 Scalability (teams)

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In a number of cases we have observed, there is a small team of people taking care of every single trade that needs to be reported to the exchange. At best, most manual capture teams need to grow in a linear fashion to keep up with demand – i.e. adding double the amount of people as volumes double. And if someone has a sick day, it can all come tumbling down.

Utilising an automated solution allows for much easier scaling, since most automated solutions would carry more than enough reserve capacity to make scaling simple. It is usually also a lot easier (especially in the days of cloud and VMs) to add additional hardware to a solution to allow it to scale than adding additional people.

2 Eliminating tedious work

Double capturing information is almost never seen as a rewarding and satisfying career path. Allowing people to take care of exception scenarios, and allowing an automated solution to take care of the “boring” repetitive part of the trade reporting process leads to much better job satisfaction.

capacity. i.e. allows for constant flow during a period where volumes suddenly exceed normal parameters.

Depending on the design of the solution, this burst capacity can be significant, and would often result in minimal slowdown if any. A manual approach does not leave a lot of tolerance for data burst periods unfortunately.

5 Penalties (time/accuracy)

Slow throughput rates, lack of burst capacity, and error-prone data capturing can lead directly to penalties being imposed on businesses. Often exchanges and other regulators place fixed time allowances on the time from which a trade is concluded to when it has to be (accurately) reported to the exchange in question.

Automated solutions can help avoid penalties such as these.

6 Key man dependence

3 Error rates

Humans are unfortunately error prone when it comes to routine data capturing tasks. Add tedium and/or time pressure onto that, and the situation only becomes worse. Machines on the other hand, can repeat the same task millions of times without a single error.

Too often a small proportion of individuals do the majority of the work (the Pareto Principle has been shown to apply to teams in organisations). This does mean that key-man dependence tends to emerge in teams, meaning that if specific individuals are out of commission for any reason (illness, leave, or even resignation), teams can feel a disproportionate impact.

This is especially true for teams managing trade reporting, where a key-man dependency can create a major risk, and cause a significant impact on the business in cases where the key individual is indisposed.

4 Burst capacity

7 Unneeded extra work

Using an automated solution provides for some “burst”

Very often less than optimal processes are used to

12 Insight into exceptions

A good automated solution should provide clear visibility of exception scenarios as/when they occur.

Using manual processes means that it is often difficult to know if/when issues have occurred. Automated solutions can highlight issues that can’t be automatically resolved, allowing humans to focus on these items as opposed to the actual capture of information.

Implementing an automated solution does often involve initial effort, but the advantages in the long term outweigh the initial impact. Utilising a solution that has been implemented a number of times (either internally or at other clients) also leads to significant optimisation in knowledge transfer. An issue has to be experienced once for the lessons/fixes from it to be applied to all instances.

13 Analysis of trends

9 Savings

14 Flexibility

Automated solutions are typically cheaper in the long term than growing teams of people to support solutions, and also reduces management overheads.

10 Security

Manual capture processes are open to human influence, and as such can be manipulated for personal gain. In its most extreme form, manual processes can lead to instances of fraud. Automated processes cut down on this possibility significantly.

11 Auditability/Traceability

When issues occur, it is often very difficult to understand what exactly happened. Although it is almost always best to avoid finger-pointing, if there is financial impact, then the issue of liability becomes relevant. Similarly, if the causes of an issue are not well understood, then understanding how to resolve the issue can at best be seen as a “patch” rather than a full fix. Without logging and traceability issues are doomed to be repeated and blame games will become commonplace. The auditability that automated solutions provide allows for a clearer understanding of what happened and in which order, helping to clearly

Information gathered by automated solutions can be used to highlight and understand trends before they become obvious to the business. For example, increased volumes could indicate that spare capacity might need to be built into the solution in future, or increased error rates from a specific desk could indicate that there are process issues on the desk.

Although often overlooked, one of the advantages of an automated trade reporting solution is that it allows business to try new things without incurring additional costs. For example, take a scenario where a desk wants to trade a new product type. Volumes will go up significantly in the short term, but the desk is not sure if trading on the new product will be financially viable in the long term, and as such they are keen to experiment with the model.

If a manual team is used to report trades, that team needs to be scaled up and/or hired. As mentioned, an automated solution should contain some capacity to cater to additional volume (if it doesn’t it can be scaled up as well). If the experiment is a success, then things can continue as is, and all is well. But, what happens if the experiment fails? With an automated solution, not much. Things continue as before. At worst, any added capacity can be removed, but this is usually not an issue. However, with a manual solution, people that may have been hired (or moved) onto the team now become redundant. Leading to massive disruption if they are moved around again, or even worse, retrenched.

Automated solutions provide some flexibility to business to allow them to try new things. ai

4TH QUARTER 2020

8 Re-use of solutions/processes

delineate responsibility as well as understand how to avoid issues in future.

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support manual reporting processes. Sometimes this would take the form of e-mails, phone calls, or additional logging on tracking systems (or even faxes), and sometimes this would just be the additional churn created due to the incorrect booking of trades – fixing an incorrect trade often results in much more work than simply double booking, since reversals need to occur on previous trades (which at times need telephonic or mail approval from the counterparty) as well. Automation allows for the simplification of this process.

Recommendations of the PC4IR Report

4TH QUARTER 2020

In early August, President Cyril Ramaphosa received the report by the Presidential Commission on the Fourth Industrial Revolution (PC4IR) from Communications and Digital Technologies Minister, Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams, and Deputy Chairperson of the Commission, Professor Tshilidzi Marwala.

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THE COMMISSION, comprised of leaders from academia, business and civil society, began its work in May 2019, combining research and stakeholder engagements to generate a comprehensive view of South Africa’s prevailing conditions and the prospects of the 4IR. The PC4IR report contains key recommendations to guide South Africans in crafting a shared 4IR future.

Professor Marwala made a long and short version of the report public on Twitter on 25 October. The report has also been published in the Government Gazette.

The report comperatively assessed country-level 4IR strategies from around the world to establish best practice and identify unique opportunities for the country. The comparative assessment came up with four pillars or themes which serve as a guidance for the design of a comprehensive strategy. These are: - Investment in human capital - Infrastructure for industry and human capital - Technological Direction - Funding the 4IR The PC4IR report found that the 4IR is an opportunity for South Africa to integrate itself into the broader African market. “By supporting SMMEs to develop technology that will optimise the delivery of services in sectors such as health, education and transport, we can simultaneously enhance the wellbeing of our citizens and become globally competitive,” says the report.

The report’s authors believe that 4IR technology will also lead to South Africa’s social-economic integration into the African continent. “By doing this, we can catalyse dramatic socio-economic improvements in South Africa, a tide that must be intentionally directed to lift your compatriots across the continent of Africa.

That means not only resolving the triple challenge through technology, but using technology as an instrument through which to achieve a much bolder development plan in which South Africa is not emerging but rather accomplished, amongst nations. The 4IR is an opportunity to achieve South Africa’s Vision 2030 and beyond”.

The PC4IR report calls for an investment in Human Capital. It points out that South Africa’s “greatest opportunity and greatest resource” is her people.”The 4th IR gives us a rallying point of urgency and an opportunity to redesign, streamline and align the education system through a co-ordinated, robust, multi-stakeholder process. The purpose of version 2.0 of our skills ecosystem will be to leapfrog our youth into productive work and resell current workers for job retention and ongoing productive work in the economy,” it states.

The report calls on: - Government to make investment in Human Capital a priority for the Human Resources Development Council (HRDC), assisted by the PC4IR and driven by the Digital Skills Forum - Business to engage in skills needs and collaborate on strategic projects for mass skills development linked to industry - Labour unions to review their role in light of 4IR and recommend appropriate worker protections, collaborating with the government to look to implement these - Academic institutions to review curriculums in light of the 4IR and ensure the relevance of qualifications with a focus on the requisite skills and the principle of lifelong learning.

The PC4IR report also recommends that government, together with the private sector establish an AI Institute with a mandate that includes among other things research and development; training and ensuring positive social impact. “Artificial intelligence is a bedrock technology in the 4IR, underpinning the growing connections in cyber-physical and biological systems.” The report calls on: - Businesses to engage with the institute to collaborate on implementation, starting with pilots which are followed by full implementation - Labour unions to drive training on AI for their members

The Commission’s report further calls on: - Government to review incentives regime and establish appropriate incentives for the objective of creating globally competitive players, through consultations - Business (especially SMMEs) to engage with the government on key incentives required as well as current issues experienced in building 4IR relevant businesses that address South Africa’s development challenges - Academic institutions to collaborate with SMMEs in commercialising 4IR technologies and opportunities The report points out that it is important to incorporate 4IR infrastructure into the overall planning for infrastructure development and deployment. It calls on the government to develop a comprehensive set of infrastructure priorities for the country, accompanied by a plan and timelines for delivery. “Biotechnology, 3D printing and the digital economy all require an infrastructure base. However, 4IR infrastructure does not stand alone. It ought to integrate with existing economic and social infrastructure. Just as road is required to access a cell phone tower, cell phone signal is required to call emergency services.”

Continued on page 40

4TH QUARTER 2020

patent registration, as well as enabling ease of global competitiveness and expansion.

“The state, as the largest and most potent purchaser in the country, has a significant role to play in the adoption of 4IR technologies across priority sectors, in line with this, the state also needs to ensure that appropriate regulation (and taxation) of foreign platforms and other businesses operating in South Africa is achieved.”

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- Academic institutions to partner with the government in building national AI skills and training The report also recommends the establishment of a platform for Advanced Manufacturing and New Materials by government and the private sector.

“The revival of South Africa’s manufacturing sector is a core concern of the Industrial Policy Action Plan given the centrality of the sector to job creation and global competitiveness. To be successful in the context of the 4IR, it is imperative that the manufacturing sector be supported by a state-led research initiative focused on advanced manufacturing and new materials,” says the report. The PC4IR report further calls on: - Businesses to engage with the government on priority areas as well as implementation in industry through sector councils and other platforms - Labour unions to collaborate with business and government in this effort, through driving worker education and transition support - Academic institutions to collaborate with the initiative through relevant R&D findings and IP that support the initiative’s objectives Tied to this, the report also calls for incentives for future industries, platforms and applications of 4IR technologies. “For the industries of the future to emerge, new forms of incentives are required, incorporating subsidies and tax breaks to support the acquisition and application of advanced technologies in the manufacturing of goods and delivery of services. The DTI acknowledges the country’s position as a laggard in digital or smart industrial players, as well as enable existing 4IR enabled SMMEs to experience an enabling an environment for growth.” The PC4IR report points out that it crucial that the ease of doing business is improved, including

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Recommendations of the PC4IR Report Continued from page 37

4TH QUARTER 2020

The report also calls on: - Business (large and SMMEs) to engage with the government on infrastructure efforts that have been tested and can be scaled - Labour unions to assist in driving infrastructure rollout through managing negotiation deadlocks that prevent timeous project rollout The report recommends that citizen data be easily available in addition to placing an emphasis on cybersecurity. “The principal opportunity in the 4IR is storage of large sums of data. Reliable, accurate, standardised, integrated and easily accessible citizen data is critical for building e-government services across sectors such as health, transport and justice.

However, this opportunity must be safeguarded by securely organising public data through the bolstering of cybersecurity capacity and capabilities.”

Besides recommending that Comsec, the state’s cybersecurity company, be strengthened, the PC4IR report also encourages the state to easily make available anonymised data sets to collaborate with different stakeholders in order to solve delivery challenges and to enable innovation. It also points out the need to identify anonymised data that can be shared with the government to improve national datasets.

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The report further calls on: - Businesses to engage with the government on key datasets required for the innovation and service delivery coordination - Academic institutions to collaborate with the government through data scientists and R&D on government data best strategies The PC4IR also recommends a review and amendment of policy and legislation to enable 4IR progress, with legislation like the Space Affairs Act, Disaster Management Act and South African Weather Service Act singled out for review with consideration for the co-ownership of closed data.

“The generation of intellectual property rights stands out in this context as the principle of a creative economy implies the rapid production of new technologies, artefacts and processes for commercialisation and scale. This exercise requires the legislature and the state executives be trained to become 4IR and science literate in order to implement changes that are holistic, integrating the specific logics of technologies, the industries they impact, the people who will both consume and produce them and the policy and legislative agility required to compete on a global stage.”

The report points out that platform businesses also need a regulation and taxation regime that encourages fair competition. It also calls on: - Government to utilise the state’s legal advisers and

policymakers to review current policy and legislation with stakeholders, driving the process for review, amendment and, or creation - Businesses to engage with the government on policy and legislation hurdles and inefficiencies that need to be addressed - Labour unions to collaborate with business and government in this effort, ensuring worker rights and protections are appropriate - Academic institutions to collaborate with the initiative through relevant R&D findings and IP that support the initiative’s objectives.

The Commission also recommends that a 4IR Strategy Implementation Coordination Council be established in the Presidency. The PC4IR suggests that the council will interact with other departments through the Department of Telecommunications, and will be responsible for the implementation coordination, resource unlocking, accountability and policy coherence of 4IR programmes.

In addition, the Council is envisaged to also co-ordinate initiatives across the public and private sectors, labour, academia and SMMEs to ensure synergy and drive efficiency through minimising duplication and enabling collaboration.

“There is also a requirement to ensure that existing institutions of the state are revived and re-energised, where needed, to deliver on the 4IR strategy. This will require a combination of training efforts to ensure 4IR understanding and skills, and the possible consolidation of teams and budgets to reduce duplication and optimise delivery. This is a critical step to ensure that work on the 4IR can be successfully implemented, monitored and evaluated. For this strategy to succeed, all government departments must have a person responsible for 4IR implementation,” states the report.

The report also calls on: - Business (large and SMMEs) to self-organise in such a way that representative organisations can be represented in the council and are able to quickly and efficiently drive engagement, collaboration and implementation through the broad members - Labour unions to be represented on the council and drive 4IR implementation initiatives within labour - Academic institutions (universities and colleges) to be represented on the council and drive 4IR implementation initiatives Prof Marwala, in the foreword of the report, highlighted that the 4IR offers South Africa prospects to revolutionise the energy, water, mining, manufacturing, agriculture, financial services, public administration sectors, amongst others, in a way that will benefit all South Africans.

He added that the 4IR strategic policies and programmes that will emerge from the report with create an inclusive economy to stimulate growth within the country. The question now is will the government, private sector, academia and other stakeholder take these recommendations onboard? ai

HUAWEI TRAINS

122 South African students in AI

Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams interacting with Seeds for the Future 2020 students

other course participants from around the world and access to Chinese cultural resources.

The launch was attended by South Africa’s Minster of Communications and Digital Technologies Stella NdabeniAbrahams, who endorsed Huawei’s investment in youth ICT development and highlighted the importance of tech skills in the new economy. She said the government was committed to working with progressive partners that invest in the people of South Africa so they too can participate effectively and meaningfully in the digital future.

“Initiatives like Seeds of the Future give hope to South Africa,” the minister said, issuing a challenge to this year’s students. “You represent a new brigade, which will drive the Fourth Industrial Revolution we are committed to. We can’t do it without you.”

Fan said that Huawei was conscious of the need to enhance South Africa’s ICT ecosystem on every front, and that Seeds for the Future programme was part of its commitment to doing this. “We believe it is critical to unleash the potential of South Africa’s young people – especially women – so they can become agents of their own digital empowerment,” he said. ai

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THE TRAINING will enable the 122 students to design, develop and innovate AI products and solutions.

The initiative forms part of the company’s commitment to providing training in 4IR technologies such as 5G and cloud computing which Huawei South Africa kicked-off last year.

“To function in the emerging Fourth Industrial Revolution, ICT skills will be indispensable – for organisations, for individuals, and for society,” said Fan. Seeds for the Future is Huawei’s global flagship CSR programme, designed to develop skilled, local ICT talent and bridge communication between countries and cultures. In South Africa the programme is run in partnership with the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies. Every year, a group of outstanding students are given the chance to study new technologies and experience Chinese culture on a study trip to Beijing and Shenzhen.

This year’s edition of the programme, which is being held online because of the COVID-19 pandemic, will see 50 course participants follow live-streamed lectures and online course material. The course includes modules on 5G broadband, cloud computing and the Internet of Things, as well as virtual tours of the Huawei campus in Dongguan, China; interactions with

4TH QUARTER 2020

Huawei South Africa CEO Spawn Fan, speaking in August at the virtual opening ceremony of the 2020 Seeds for the Future training programme, announced that the company was providing free online training in artificial intelligence (AI) to 122 university and technical and vocational educational and training (TVET) college students in Gauteng and Limpopo.

SIENNA PROJECT STUDY:

South Africans Polarised on Opinions around Robots, AI and Automation Findings from a report released by the EU-funded SIENNA project suggest that South Africans are hold “very polarised” opinions around robots, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the effects of intelligent machines and automation in society.

2ND QUARTER 2020

By Daniel Mpala

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THE SIENNA (Stakeholder-informed ethics for new technologies with high socio-economic and human rights impact) project seeks to develop ethical protocols and codes for human genomics, human enhancement, as well as AI and robotics.

The report, which was published in October and can be accessed here, is a quantitative investigation of public views and awareness of artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, human enhancement and genomics.It is one of seven studies undertaken through the project which seeks to study the ethical, legal and social issues (ELSI) of the three technologies. The report’s aim was to provide a snapshot of opinions in 2019 on intelligent machines and their impact on society.

The study was carried out by research firm Kantar which surveyed 11 000 respondents — 1000 each from France, Germany, Greece, Netherlands, Poland Spain, Sweden, Brazil, South Africa, South Korea, and the US — through telephonic interviews between March and April 2019. Brazil, South Africa, South Korea and the USA were included in the study to provide comparative insights.

The report’s authors pointed out that relative to the other 10 countries in the study, South Africa stood out as a country with very polarised views on many measures. The authors attributed this to “extremely wide inequalities in society”.

“There were several measures where South Africans were both among the most positive and the most negative.

This is evident in the proportions of South Africans who: support vs oppose the idea of robots resembling humans in everyday life and as romantic partners; feel that intelligent machines will lead to more autonomy vs less autonomy; and feel that their country will be completely different vs not different at all. It is also notable that in all countries apart from South Africa, a majority considered that more widespread automation would lead to greater inequalities.

In South Africa, a sizeable minority (21%, higher than all other countries) thought it would instead lead to reduced inequalities within their county,” the report stated.

Continued on page 44

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Sienna Project Study: Continued from page 42

4TH QUARTER 2020

Need for education on AI, robots

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The findings from the report seem to suggest that there’s need for education across the board on robots and AI, and the capabilities of these technologies and their impact on society. The report’s authors state that although most of the survey participants across the 11 countries were familiar with AI and robotic applications, “relatively small proportions” felt they were well informed.

Across most of the 11 countries, the report found that respondents not only anticipated wide-scale changes over the next two decades in the development of capabilities of intelligent machines and their effects of societies, but also understood that the technologies brought risks.

In the majority of countries, the study found that people were “more negative than positive” about the prospect of robots taking on more human features, and the widespread use of intelligent machines which the respondents felt would widen inequalities and result in people having less control.

“Despite this, people were on balance more positive than negative about the overall impact of intelligent machines in society. There were wide variations by country, with South Korea and Brazil most positive, and South Africa most polarised. No single country stood as especially negative, though France, Greece, Spain and Germany were all more negative than average on two or more measures,” the report’s authors added.

On average, across all the countries in the study, half of the people surveyed said they’d heard or read “a lot” or “ a fair amount” about robots (51%) and AI (50%). The highest proportion of respondents who’d heard or read “ a fair amount” about either robotic or AI technologies was highest in Germany and South Korea ( range between 66% and 72%) and lowest in South Africa, Spain and Poland ( range between 32% and 41%).

“South Africa stood apart from all other countries in terms of the proportion who lacked any awareness of these technologies. Based on the all-country average, almost all respondents had at least heard of robots (96%) and AI (93%). However, a substantial minority of respondents in South Africa had never heard of these technologies at all (24% had never heard of robots, this while 23% had never heard of AI),” says the report.

The report’s authors also pointed out that for both AI and robotics across all the surveyed countries, self-reported awareness was higher among the more educated as well as men.

When asked questions around the perceived impact of intelligent machines on society’s, half of the South Africans who participated in the study thought the more widespread use of intelligent machines in the workplace would lead to greater levels of inequality between the rich and the poor. In addition, South Africans were also twice as likely as the other countries to think that the use of intelligent machines in the workplace would reduce inequalities (21%, compared to an all-country average of 11%). However, South Africans and Germans

(at 62% and 66%, respectively) are more likely than the average (55%) to think that the increased use of intelligent machines would lead to less control.

It’s worth noting that the report’s authors caution against the over-interpretation of the study’s findings outside of the research context and add that the results aren’t meant to answer policy questions.

Here are some findings that stood out for us: • South Africa had the highest proportion of people who were not familiar with AI and robots. The proportion of respondents who’d heard or read hardly anything or nothing at all about robots was much higher in South Africa and Brazil when compared with other countries.

1 in 3 respondents in South Africa (37%) said they’d heard or read anything or nothing at all about robots • In South Africa a quarter (24%) had never heard of robots which is substantially higher than any country in the study (in all other countries this proportion was less than 5%) • South Africa and Poland (both at 36%) were least likely to know at least a fair amount about AI • Respondents in South Africa and Brazil were most likely to say they knew hardly nothing at all about robots (both at 36%), while respondents in South Africa were markedly more likely than all other countries to have no knowledge at all about AI, 23% of respondents in South Africa had never heard of AI, while this figure was between 1% and 12% in all other countries • With a country average of 29% strongly agreeing or tending to agree that robots should resemble human beings, South Africans at (33%) had higher than average levels of acceptability towards the concept of robots looking like humans • South Africa was the most polarised in terms of opinion on the acceptability of robots looking and behaving like humans in a workplace or public settings (33% agreeing, and 58% disagreeing) • 67% of South Africans think intelligent machines will be able to communicate as well as humans • When asked about the impact of intelligent machines on inequality between the rich and poor, 50% believed there would be greater inequality, however compared with other countries a much higher proportion of South Africans (21%) considered that a proliferation of intelligent machines in the workplace would instead result in reduced inequalities • Respondents in South Africa and the USA were most likely to think that more widespread use of intelligent machines would lead to their respective countries being completely different (54% and 44% for South Africa and USA, respectively) • In a reflection of South Africans polarised views on intelligent machines, 14% of South Africans were of the opinion that intelligent machines would not bring about any change in their country • 26% of South African respondents gave a strongly negative score on the impact of intelligent machines in their country, while 31% gave a strongly positive score ai

Ada Labs looks to launch four startups to market by December

Nairiobi-based Ada Labs has announced that it is looking to launch four startups to market by the end of year. The smart technology — AI, blockchain and Internet of Things (IoT) — focused incubation hub was established this year and aims to develop solutions that are both socially and economically impactful.

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“The great leaps we’re making toward creating an ecosystem that will provide solutions for Africans and the world, by Africans and serving the larger community is one of the main reasons Ada Labs was created,” said Kamara. ai

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THE HUB incubates startups for a year and provides them with support around investor relations, operations, administrative support, access to networks, finance, assistance with commericialistion, public relations, marketing, advertising, as well as capacity building.

Ada Labs currently has two startups that it has launched to market. These are Afya Rekod, a consumerdriven health data platform built on AI and blockchain technology (read more about them in this Synapse article which provides users with access to credit.

The other startups currently being incubated at the hub include Ecobba, Phema Agri, Reward Adz ,and Twaa.

Ada Labs is looking to launch these four startups in December.

Ada Labs founder and CEO John Kamara said the tech hub is focused on the evolution of smart technologies to create change and on developing the next African entrepreneur.

“Our focus is not just in technology development but also in developing human beings who will create change. This means that we also evaluate applications on businesses’ potential to add value in the local economy and create new work opportunities,” added Kamara.

2020 Government AI Readiness Index: Mauritius highest-ranked African Country

Mauritius has emerged the highest-ranked African country in the Oxford Insights 2020 Government AI Readiness Index, ranking 45th out of 172 countries around the world.

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across inclusivity, accountability, transparency and privacy.

Estonia placed 1st with a score of 79.852, in contrast Senegal placed 9th with a score of 66.381, Mauritius was 13th with a score of 64.099, Egypt placed 27th with a score of 45.520, with South Africa placing 29th with a score of 42.699.

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THE THIRD edition of the report — produced by Oxford Insights and commissioned by Canada’s International Research Development Centre (IDRC) — which can be viewed here, seeks to answer how ready governments are to implement AI in the delivery of public services to their citizens.

It draws on 33 indicators across 10 dimensions, namely: digital capacity, adaptability, size, innovation capacity, human capital, data availability, data representativeness, vision, governance and ethics, as well as infrastructure.

A worrying trend identified in the report is how countries in the Global South appear to be lagging behind those in the Global North, with Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean, and South And Central Asia are among the lowest scoring regions.

“If inequality in government AI readiness translates into inequality in AI implementation, this could entrench economic inequality and leave billions of citizens across the Global South with worse quality public services,” warns the report.

According to the study, in Sub-Saharan Africa only Mauritius has developed and published a national AI strategy, with Kenya classified as being in the process of developing one.

South Africa got commendation from the report’s authors for taking steps to set up a Presidential Commission on the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Rwanda also got a nod for its plans to establish a data protection policy by the end of the year which is expected to indirectly address key AI-related governance issues.

In North Africa, only Egypt — ranked 56th out of 172 countries , and 8th out of 18 countries in the MENA region— has introduced a national AI strategy, with the report singling out Tunisia as also being in the process of developing one.

The highest-ranking African countries in the 2020 Government AI Readiness Index are as follows: Mauritius (45th) Egypt (56th) South Africa (59th) Seychelles (68th) Tunisia (69th) Kenya (71st) Rwanda (87th)

African countries and Responsible AI

The study also contains a Responsible AI sub-Index which covers 34 countries — including the top 20 countries in the Government AI Readiness Index, together with 14 other countries deemed as regional leaders or rising stars.

The Responsible AI sub-Index measures nine indicators

Policy barriers

Why are African countries seemingly lagging behind? According to the report as of 2019, only about 10% of the 65 000 tech startups on the continent focused on 4IR technologies like IoT, Big Data and AI. This while only $17,5-million in government and private sector investments in 2019 went to the AI sector.

The study cites infrastructure; inconsistent policy and regulation failures; talent shortages; and data poverty as some of the factors holding African countries back.

“The Index indicates that overall, African countries are relatively better prepared in the Data and Infrastructure pillar, followed by the Government pillar and then the Technology Sector pillar. Within these pillars, countries have or are building more capacity in telecommunications and other infrastructures needed to support AI, and in the availability of representative AI training data. They have less capacity in relation to the size of the technology sector, the business environment and existence of a skilled AI workforce. There is also limited preparation of appropriate regulatory and ethical frameworks; and governments themselves generally have low use of ICTs and low responsiveness to change,” the report points out.

The study does point out however that collaboration through initiatives like the African Union AI Working Group — which met last year in a bid to develop a regional approach to AI — could help countries in the region develop strategies and identify regulatory and governance issues as well as learn from regional best practices.

So, what is Mauritius doing right?

Among other things, the report’s authors commended the island nation of Mauritius for focusing on how AI can support the Ocean economy. The country’s national AI strategy also included the establishment of an AI council.

Mauritius, the report highlights, could also be benefiting from having a mature telecoms market and vibrant tech startup sector which is supported by regulatory sandboxes which encourage innovation and experimentation. The country also has data protection laws that compare with the EU’s GDPR which has become the gold standard of data protection legislation. In addition, as the study points out, the Digital Mauritius 2030 strategy also focuses on cybersecurity. More importantly, the country has invested in an AI skills development programme run through its Human Resources Development Council. This focus on growing talent in the AI sector is further seen by the government providing scholarships for AI-related university courses. ai

LOWER-INCOME COUNTRIES could soon leapfrog high income countries with AI-enabled health tech

diseases and the ever-increasing tide of chronic diseases.

“Digital technology and AI are essential enablers to re-engineer health systems from being reactive to proactive, predictive, and even preventive,” said Dr Aerts.

“We have to develop a sustainable ecosystem for AI in health in the countries where it is most desperately needed. This has to happen while ensuring fairness and access for all. As health systems build back after the pandemic, technological innovation has to be a core part of the agenda,” added Dr Aerts.

Sub-Saharan Africa faces particularly acute health challenges.

The region currently represents 12% of the global population but faces 25% of the world’s disease burden, while housing only 3% of the world’s health workers.

A worldwide shortage of healthcare workers, which is particularly serious in lower-income countries, is predicted to reach 18 million by 2030. This boosts the case for investment in supportive AI tools, which can help nurses and community health workers diagnose and treat illnesses traditionally seen by doctors.

AI is boosting access and improving outcomes while also cutting costs by identifying potential health problems before they actually occur. “AI can have a big impact not just in lowerincome countries, but across all health systems,” said Paul Mitchell of Microsoft, who co-chaired the Working Group.

“It’s clear COVID-19 is driving massive change in the use of technology in health - we are seeing in a few months what I would have expected normally to take years, if not decades.”

In rural areas of Rwanda, one doctor may serve as many as 60,000 people. The government is working with a private sector partner, Babylon Health, to give every person aged over 12 access to digital health consultations. More than 30 percent of Rwanda’s adult population has signed up. The new partnership will also see the introduction of an AI-powered triage and symptom checker platform. ai

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THE REPORT, titled Reimagining Global Health through Artificial Intelligence: The Roadmap to AI Maturity identifies five top use cases for AI in health. These are population health, preclinical research and trials, clinical care pathways, patientsolutions and the optimisation of health operations.

It also lists six key areas for AI maturity in health. These comprise of people and workforce; data and technology; governance and regulatory; design and process; partnerships and stakeholders; and business models.

The report — which was developed with the support of Accenture and digital health experts that include the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, ITU /WHO AI4Health Focus Group, Rockefeller Foundation, and MIT Media Lab — points out how low and middle-income countries have traditionally been faster and more comprehensive adopters of tech like mobile phone trading platforms, e-banking, e-commerce and blockchain applications.

The report — which can be downloaded here: — suggests that the adoption of health technologies is likely to follow the same trend, with digital transformation accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Reduced contact between patients and health providers due to social distancing has led to major growth in technologies such as AI-enabled diagnostics. Millions more people have sought digital health care solutions – presenting a tremendous opportunity for countries to integrate data and AI into their health systems. For example, Rwanda is now arguably the most digitally connected health system in Africa, with its virtual consulting service surging past two million users (one-third of the adult population) in May 2020.

Dr. Ann Aerts, head of the Novartis Foundation and co-chair of the Broadband Commission Working Group on Digital and AI in Health, said in a statement in September that many countries are ill-prepared to address a new emerging disease such as COVID-19 in addition to the existing burden of infectious

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A report published in September by the Broadband Commission for Digital Development and led by philanthropic organisation The Novartis Foundation together with Microsoft, suggests that low and middle-income countries could soon leapfrog high-income countries in their adoption of new AI-enabled technologies in health.

BI, ANALYTICS AND

Healthcare leaders in use of AI in Low and Middle-Income Countries

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BI, analytics and healthcare leaders in use of AI in Low and Middle-Income Countries Business intelligence, analytics and healthcare are among the leading uses of artificial intelligence (AI) in low and middle countries, a new report by the GSMA has found.

The report, titled Artificial Intelligence and Start-Ups in Low – and Middle-Income Countries: Progress, Promises and Perils, was published by the GSMA in late October and can be downloaded here

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THE STUDY examines the current and potential use of AI in low-and middle-income countries (LMICs) across SubSaharan Africa, North Africa and South East Asia. It does this by analysing the business models of companies that use home-grown AI solutions, and also looks at sectors and countries that are receiving the most funding.

The report maps a sample of 450 startups by sector alignment with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and, based on interviews with AI experts in LMICs — including AI Media Group CEO and AI Expo Africa co-founder Dr Nick Bradshaw — explores trends and challenges in business models, barriers to innovation, and

the ethical and responsible use of artificial intelligence (AI).

It cautions that while AI has the potential to achieve social good, “positive outcomes are not guaranteed”.

“There are many fundamental questions about data protection, ingrained bias as a result of poor data collection methods, social inclusion and the responsible use of AI. AI enables new technologies to improve efficiency and productivity, but it may also deepen inequalities, hindering the achievement of the UN SDGs. Since increased use of data introduces further privacy and ethical concerns, AI solutions should be guided by sound privacy and ethical principles,” the report’s authors add.

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The top AI use cases identified by the report in LMIC countries includes: - Administration and business processes - Agriculture - Cities and infrastructure - Climate change - Disaster management - Education - Government and public services - Identity - Healthcare - Finance and micro lending

Interesting insights from the study on Africa are: • Nigeria and South Africa were the next two most represented nations in the sample with 42 and 38 use cases, respectively • In terms of sector verticals using AI for social good, healthcare , and food and agriculture emerged the top two verticals in Sub-Saharan Africa. This while in North Africa healthcare, and retail and consumer goods emerged the top categories • SDGs 8 and 9 — sustainable economic growth and employment, respectively — emerged the top categories in SubSaharan Africa, covering a wide range of financial services, as well as general business services that improve business intelligence, operations and efficiency • The study found few educational innovations that rely on AI in Sub-Saharan Africa, with the report’s authors explaining that this could have been due to lack of high-quality and digitised data, as well as challenging internet infrastructure • In North Africa, SDG 8 and 9 — sustainable economic growth and employment, respectively — and healthcare (SDG 3) emerged as leaders • The use of AI decision management tools is disproportionately higher in Sub-Saharan Africa than it is in Asia ai

Q&A with Cirrus AI CEO Gregg Barrett

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AI head Gregg Barrett chats about Cirrus AI — the South African private sector led initiative bringing together academia and industry to establish a world-class AI research and application capability for Africa and beyond.

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The problem

The solution

For the benefit of new readers can you summarise the problem Cirrus is looking to address?

There is currently no artificial intelligence ecosystem in Southern Africa, presenting a very real risk to the regions ability to participate in and benefit from the advances that are being realised from AI. Firstly, machine learning is at the core of a technological and societal artificial intelligence revolution that is impacting numerous areas of society, including scientific research. Secondly, Africa is absent from this revolution and has not made investments and undertaken initiatives that can compare with those in North America, UK/Europe and more recently in Asia. Thirdly, academic institutions are struggling as a significant part of the basic research is now being done in industry with rapid commercialisation of results and there is now little distinction between academic research and industrial labs.

To address this problem, is it correct that you have structured Cirrus into three components?

Cirrus itself houses the cooperation programs, the state-of-the-art computing infrastructure and the open learning programs.

The second component, the Cirrus FOUNDRY is equipped with everything needed to bridge what is called the “Valley of Death”, and that is overcoming the challenge of turning a start-up idea or scientific research into large-scale commercial application. The business of the Cirrus FOUNDRY is building other businesses.

It is characterised by: ideation generally carried out by the in-house team; the use of in-house staff in product creation; building multiple products centred around AI; with the objective of being standalone businesses; retaining some ownership stake and has a capital fund. For these reasons it is not an incubator or accelerator and referred to as a foundry.

Cirrus also has an agreement in place with the Cortex Group, who intend to establish a mirrored version of the Cirrus FOUNDRY in Cape Town, named Cirrus FOUNDRY Cape.

The third component, the Cirrus FOUNDRY Fund is the in-house fund to support start-ups in the Cirrus FOUNDRY to ensure they are not wholly dependent on outside capital.

Why have other attempts to solve this problem failed or been incomplete?

There are roughly five reasons for this: 1. Slow to realise the gravity of the situation. The rapid advancement of machine learning in recent years has caught many off-guard to the extent that they have been slow to grasp just how quickly they have been falling behind.

2. Inability to view the problem in its entirety. Siloed views pertaining to the problem with an inability to view the various components of a solution existing within a broader ecosystem.

3. Zero-sum thinking resulting in turf wars as opposed to engagement to foster collaboration across academia and industry in the region.

4. Insufficient understanding on what machine learning constitutes resulting in a lack of a concrete vision in what a solution should look like.

5. Where a vision does exist, there is a lack of understanding on execution.

The team Can you give us an idea of some of the people behind the scenes working on Cirrus?

On the Wits side, Zeblon Vilakazi launched Cirrus in 2019 at AI Expo Africa, at the time he was Deputy Vice Chancellor and has now been appointed as the Vice Chancellor of Wits University.

Barry Dwolatzky has been appointed as the Cirrus Project Lead at Wits. Barry played a leading role in

“

Global collaboration is a necessity for Africa’s AI effort to be successful.

Simply, the resources required for the success of this initiative do not currently exist in the region, - Gregg Barret, CEO Cirrus AI.

the establishment of the Tshimologong Precinct, the Johannesburg Centre for Software Engineering and the IBM Research Laboratory at Wits.

Some of the members of the Cirrus team that have been working behind the scenes over the last several years include: Advocate Louis Nel who leads General Counsel; Johan Brink who leads Corporate and Investment Banking; Eric Thalmann who leads Procurement, Supply Chain and Operations; Andre van der Merwe who leads Intellectual Property and Dr Jacques Ludik who leads efforts on Cirrus FOUNDRY Cape, the Machine Intelligence Institute of Africa (MIIA) and is a member of the Cirrus Advisory Council.

”

The Cirrus Consortium

For academic and research institutions you have established the Cirrus Consortium, can you tell me a little more about it?

It is through the Cirrus Consortium that academic and research institutions will have access to Cirrus resources and infrastructure. Wits University is leading the engagement with academic and research institutions wishing to join the consortium. Importantly, there are no consortium membership dues, so participation in the consortium is free.

Continued on page 52

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What are some of the targets you are looking to hit with the establishment of Cirrus?

On the high-performance computing side (HPC), the target is to be the most powerful system in Africa and the target is a top 50 position in the Top500 list.

For reference, there is currently not a single African installation on the Top500 list.

The Cirrus HPC platform will be powered by renewable energy in the form of solar. We have 178 000 square feet available for solar generation.

This generation will then be split between operations and storage. At peak there should be in excess of 4.2 megawatts in solar generation and on a poor day in winter that should fall to around 2 megawatts.

The HPC facility itself is slated to be around 7000 square feet (650 square meters). The HPC facility will also be the most efficient in Africa and to be so it will use liquid cooling, likely warm water cooling. At this stage only some of the hardware vendors support cold plates and manifolds, however as liquid cooling is more efficient, there is a trend towards liquid cooling and if the majority vendors support such at the time of installation, we will then be moving from rear door heat exchangers to cold plates and manifolds.

On the storage side the targets are for at least 14 megawatt hours of storage, with a 15-year lifespan and a target efficiency of at least 75% electricity to electricity.

In support of this, flow batteries, lithium ion, liquid metal batteries and thermal storage platforms are being explored and represent viable options. Compressed air storage and hydrogen have also been explored, but at present these platforms do not support at least 75% electricity to electricity efficiency.

For all but one the energy storage options, Cirrus would be the first installation in Africa.

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High level targets

Q&A with Cirrus AI Continued from page 51 To simplify the Cirrus Consortium documentation the documents including the By-laws, Charter, Membership Benefits and the Consortium Membership Agreement are each a separate document. Consortium Members need only process the Consortium Membership Agreement which is a four-page document. The Consortium Membership Agreement supports two classes of memberships - Tier one and Tier two.

Tier one is differentiated from Tier two by a higher level of engagement through the appointment of an Ambassador. The Ambassadors serve as community builders, making connections between people and resources and will be senior strategic individuals within their local institution and will typically be supported by a project manager. Collectively the Ambassadors form part of the Ambassador Advisory Network which provides input and direction to the Cirrus Consortium governing body, the Cirrus Advisory Council.

Stakeholder engagement How do other stakeholder who are not academic or research institutions engage with Cirrus?

Private sector engagement will be handled by a global investment banking firm. The reason for this is that the immense amount of work to be undertaken on this front, is exactly the kind of work that is performed by investment banks.

In terms of the role of government, the Cirrus approach is for government to support its local academic and research institutions. These institutions then have access to Cirrus infrastructure and resources through the Cirrus Consortium. This approach ensures that Cirrus does not take away from or compete for resources needed by academic and research institutions. Further and very importantly, this approach ensures that there is no bureaucratic, political and poor governance spill over into Cirrus.

You are proposing that the global community embrace this effort. Why is a global effort needed?

Global collaboration is a necessity for Africa’s AI effort to be successful. Simply, the resources required for the success of this initiative do not currently exist in the region. Leading technology firms like, Microsoft Research, NVIDIA, Facebook AI Research, Toyota Research Institute etc. have little to no presence in the region. Further, there are significant deficits in infrastructure, talent and funding. These deficits can only be addressed through active participation with the global community across academia and industry.

What should stakeholders expect in the near term?

The Cirrus Consortium rollout will be commencing during the course of September, with Wits University issuing invitations to academic and research institutions.

On the private sector side, formal engagement with prospective Strategic Founding Partners will occur during the course of 2021.

A briefing session at Wits University is slated for March 2021, however this is dependent on the virus situation, as the event is intended to be an in-person event with international public and private sector attendance.

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Collaboration

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Strategic Founding Partners are the private sector organisations supporting Cirrus. At last count the list of potential Strategic Founding Partners stood at 156 firms and this is not including any foundations and philanthropies. Importantly, these firms all have research, academic and corporate venture capital operations that are relevant to Cirrus work. All Strategic Founding Partners will receive equity in Cirrus, a seat on the Advisory Council and permanent admission to the Partner program.

Are they any existing collaborations underway as Cirrus goes through the build phase?

We are already in collaboration with several organisations. Science Gateways Community Institute (SGCI) where the goal is to build a long-term strategic partnership of complementary organisations. The Machine Intelligence Institute of Africa (MIIA) where MIIA is advancing collaboration with Cirrus across Africa.

The Cortex Group, who will lead the establishment of Cirrus FOUNDRY Cape. MLPerf, where Cirrus will contribute open source programs and datasets to the MLPerf community. Berkeley SkyDeck, where the Cirrus FOUNDRY will be building a pipeline to feed into SkyDeck. And finally, AI Media, where Cirrus will continue to support the AI Media efforts, which include AI Expo Africa and Synapse Magazine in community building in the African region. ai

UNESCO submits AI ethics draft

recommendation to international community Mike MacKenzie via www.vpnsrus.com

In March, UNESCO asked 24 leading experts — including South African academic Professor Emma Ruttkamp-Bloem — with multidisciplinary experience in the ethics of artificial intelligence to develop a draft recommendation on the ethics of AI.

THE AGENCY then launched a wide process of consultation through which it sought to obtain many points of view from stakeholders. This involved experts from 155 countries, a global public online survey, other United Nations agencies, major stakeholders from the sector such as Google, Facebook and Microsoft, as well as the world of academe with the University of Stanford and the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

The resulting draft recommendation was in September submitted to UNESCO’s 193 member states. Negotiations are planned ahead of its final adoption by member states at the organisation’s General Conference in November 2021.

“We must make sure Artificial Intelligence is developed for us and not against us’ declared UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay. “We need a robust base of ethical principles to ensure artificial intelligence serves the common good. We have made this process be as inclusive as possible since the stakes involved are universal,” explained Azoulay.

The draft recommendation submitted to the international community establishes a number of over-arching concepts:

Proportionality: AI technologies must not exceed what is necessary to achieve legitimate aims or objectives, and should be appropriate to the context.

Human oversight and determination: Humans are ethically and legally responsible for all stages in the life-cycle of AI systems.

Stewardship of the environment and peace: throughout their life-cycle, AI systems must contribute to the peaceful interconnectedness of all living creatures with each other and respect the natural environment, notably with regard to the extraction of raw materials.

Gender inclusion: AI technologies must not reproduce the gender inequalities found in the real world, notably with regard to salaries, representation, access, and stereotyping. Political actions, including measures of positive discrimination, are required to avoid these major pitfalls.

In addition, UNESCO will assist governments and civil society players (corporations, members of the public etc.) in developing concrete awareness-raising campaigns and ethical impact assessment tools for AI in all fields. ai

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