FEATURE
PUTTING AFRICA ON THE AI WORLD MAP: AICE TO TRAIN 1000 AI KENYAN ENGINEERS IN THE NEXT 3 YEARS The 2019 Global AI Talent report puts the number of artificial intelligence (AI) experts in the world at 36 524. The report estimated that at least half of these were in the US, with only five percent in Africa. LinkedIn data shows that demand for AI talent grew by 74% between 2016 and 2019.
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s Kenyan data scientist Claire Matuka (pictured) points out, it stands to reason that there’s only a few AI experts in Kenya and East Africa. “ AI is still relatively new in Africa and despite the fact that there are thousands of graduates from East African Universities every year, there still remains a huge skills gap in the AI ecosystem,” she adds. Matuka last September teamed up with John Kamara, Carol Muchemi and Natasha Ochiel to establish the Artificial Intelligence Centre of Excellence (AICE). Matuka says AICE offers a unique foundation as an AI championing Centre in Africa aimed at building innovations that will create jobs and drive human wealth in the artificial intelligence landscape. “The key objective is placing Africa on the AI world map. As Africans, the team has a better understanding of the challenges faced and is better placed to develop African solutions.
Statistics show that Kenya ranks first when it comes to governance readiness for artificial intelligence which is quite exciting,” she says. She believes Africa holds great untapped talent, which once harnessed, can help solve some of the regional challenges, automate processes and improve the progress of technology particularly in Africa. “AICE will spearhead development of Africa’s AI ecosystem through the world’s leading innovation platforms and identify areas AI needs to be integrated into societal sectors in Kenya to solve real time problems. AI technology will contribute $15-trillion to the global economy, the Centre is motivated to place Africa at the centre of this,” says Matuka. One of AICE’s main goals is to train 1000 AI engineers in the next three years. In addition some of the organisation’s main objectives include helping create new smarttech driven companies that will drive
Kenya’s Vision 2030; solving unique African solutions through AI, and making sure Kenya stays on the map for foreign direct investment in the knowledge space. In January AICE held its inaugural AI for Leaders Round Table. The event, which brought together over 50 CEOs and business leaders in Kenya, sought to provide a platform to discuss the potential for AI in business in Africa. Matuka explains that some of the key take-aways from the event included the fact that the potential for AI in Africa cannot be overstated. Other key insights from
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