Synapse - Africa’s 4IR Trade & Innovation Magazine - 1st Quarter 2020 Issue 07 by AI Media Group

SYNAPSE

1st QUARTER 2020 ZAR25 | US$2.50 | Euro1.60

The Voice of African AI & Data Science

How Artificial Intelligence is helping Tackle Rhino Poaching in South Africa

SA PRESIDENT CYRIL RAMAPHOSA CALLS ON AFRICAN UNION TO ESTABLISH AI FORUM

IBM Master Inventor and UN Artificial Intelligence Advisor Neil Sahota to speak at AI Expo Africa 2020

RPA (ROBOTIC PROCESS AUTOMATION) IS THE PATH TO AI Automated Facial Recognition (AFR) - What are the implications for Africa?

ETHIOPIA TO ESTABLISH ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE R&D CENTRE

Cape Town and the Western Cape Tech Capital of Africa We are a region of unlimited potential. And this translates into unlimited opportunity for those in tech. We have a world-class digital ecosystem, where resources and talent meet commercial and social opportunity. We are a region that sees digital disruption as less of a thing and more as a way of doing things. Our destination is a place with an interconnected business landscape, offering access to a shared economy, powered by tech-savvy investors. Our city is full of talented and highly skilled people, where opportunities to grow and make a global difference abound. We also have an unfair share of natural beauty. So itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s no surprise that global tech companies choose our destination to have headquarters, as a springboard into growing markets, and as a place to work and play. Wesgro, the official tourism, trade and investment promotion agency for Cape Town and the Western Cape, can help you uncover these opportunities in the tech space.

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CONTENTS 1ST QUARTER 2020

Seasoned Tech Journalist Daniel Mpala Joins the AI Media Group

SA President Cyril Ramaphosa Calls on African Union to Establish AI Forum

IDC Forecasts IT Spending in South Africa to Top $26-billion in 2020

Here’s how AI is helping tackle rhino poaching in South Africa

South African AI Tech Startup GotBot Secures Multi-million-rand Investment from Capacitech

Sierra Leonean Mobile Financial Literacy App Mosabi Selected for Injini’s Edtech Incubation programme

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is the Path to AI says UIPath

Zindi to Run Africa’s First Inter-University AI Hackathon

GreenTec Capital Partners Invests in Moroccan Recruitment Platform Kwiks

Ethiopia to Establish AI R&D Centre

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IBM Master Inventor and UN Artificia Intelligence Advisor Neil Sahota to speak at AI Expo Africa 2020

Intelligent Buildings: A Crucial Ally in The Fight Against Climate Change

Data Science Competition Platform Zindi Hits 10 000-User Milestone

Netherlands Builds Partnership Opportunities around 4IR for South Africa

SA Fintech Startup Jumo Raises $55-million in VC funding

Microsoft Launches New $40-million, Five-year AI for Health Programme

Kenyan Data Analytics Startup Wins Opportunity with Engie Africa

SARS to Adopt AI, Machine Learning in Modernisation Drive

How Envisionit Deep AI wants to Democratise Access to Healthcare in Africa

SA’s Envisionit Deep AI accepted into Founders Factory Africa programme

36 Zimbabwean Inventor Open-sources AI-enabled Edtech Solution with Potential to Provide Free Education to Millions across Africa 40

So you want a Chatbot…

Enterprise AI startup InstaDeep Opens Sixth Offi

4IR Incubator Success Stories

Implications of Automated Facial Recognition for Africa

Girls in Tech Launches SA Chapter

African Startups DataProphet, InstaDeep make CB Insights’ AI 100 list

in Cape Town

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Seasoned Tech Journalist Daniel Mpala Joins the AI Media Group

Watch the Latest AI TV Broadcasts

As the African Artificial Intelligence business landscape grows at an exponential rate, the AI Media Group, organisers of Africa’s largest AI Business Event - AI Expo Africa - welcomes seasoned tech journalist Daniel

1ST QUARTER 2020

Mpala on board to assist in chronicling this burgeoning sector.

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DANIEL IS a tech and business journalist with specialist knowledge in covering the African tech startup ecosystem, 4IR and venture capital / investment trends on the African continent. He joins us from his time as tech journalist at Ventureburn, South Africa. He has also written as a freelancer for various publications on topics that include telecoms, politics, climate change, energy and the economy. Daniel has a background in media analysis and brand intelligence. He studied International Relations and Media Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa and is very passionate about internet security and online privacy as well as international affairs. “We’re really excited to have such a knowledgeable addition to our staff as AI Expo Africa continues to grow to meet the growing demands of the African AI scene,” says Roy Bannister Co-Founder of AI Expo Africa. “The media platforms we have created to showcase and tell the story of the African AI business sector, like AI

TV, Africa’s first AI-dedicated streaming channel and Synapse Magazine - Africa’s only AI & Data Science publication, are growing apace and demand a dedicated seasoned journalist to tell this story and manage the vast amounts of new and content this is creating.” Nick Bradshaw, Co-Founder of AI Expo Africa and pan-African AI Evangelist at the AI Media Group stated, “Daniel is a welcome addition to the team as we expand our media operations. He will also be involved in bringing his experience and knowledge to the AI Expo Africa event programme, helping our sponsors, speakers and partners amplify their story through our various platforms. Africa needs to tell more ‘good news’ stories and showcase its successes on a global stage and we plan to ramp up activity in this regard in 2020 and beyond.” Daniel can be contacted for editorial, press & media enquiries at daniel.mpala@aiexpoafrica.com Learn more at www.aimediagroup.co.za..

Contact Lenore Kerrigan | Country Sales Director South Africa | mobile: +27 83 212 4452 | e-mail: Lenore.Kerrigan@uipath.com

SA PRESIDENT

Cyril Ramaphosa Calls on

African Union to Establish AI Forum South African president and 2020 chair of the African Union (AU) Cyril Ramaphosa has called on the AU to establish an Africa Artificial Intelligence Forum.

RAMAPHOSA URGED this move during his acceptance speech for the AU chair on 9 February in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Ramaphosa pointed out that the Fourth Industrial Revolution presents Africa with “great opportunities.” “The uptake of digital technologies will lead to improved competitiveness and provides fresh opportunities for inclusive growth. “Millions of our continent’s young citizens are digital natives, and we must drive a skills revolution to enable Africa to take a quantum leap into the economy of the future. “To give full effect to our attention to this important area of work, we should look to establish an Africa Artificial Intelligence (AI) Forum, that also includes the diaspora,” said Ramaphosa. The remark comes against the backdrop of the growth of the development of the continent’s AI ecosystem including the establishment of an AI research centre in Accra, Ghana by Google in 2018. Another exciting recent development is the approval of

regulation by Ethiopia’s Council of Ministers in January that facilitates the setting up of an AI research and development centre in the country. Ethiopian publication New Business Ethiopia said in January that the centre will help startups and developers working on AI as well as regulate the industry. ai

IDC Forecasts IT Spending in South

Africa to Top $26-billion in 2020 Overall IT spending in South Africa is set to reach $26.4-billion this year, up 2.5% on 2019.

THAT’S ACCORDING to the latest predictions revealed last month by International Data Corporation (IDC) as it hosted more than 100 of the country’s most influential ICT industry figures at The Maslow Hotel Sandton in Johannesburg for IDC Directions 2020. Speaking at the event, IDC associate vice president for South Africa, Mark Walker, announced that spending on software and IT services will reach $8.2-billion in 2020 – an increase of 4.2% year on year. Walker said that infrastructure spending in the country – including servers, storage, and enterprise-level networks – will grow 3.3% to $880-million, while infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) investments will reach $204-million, having grown at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 25% over the last five years. ai

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HERE’S HOW AI is helping tackle rhino

poaching in South Africa South Africa’s Department of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries in February announced that rhino poaching has continued its decline in the country. by Daniel Mpala

1ST QUARTER 2020

THE DEPARTMENT said 594 rhino were poached in 2019 compared to 769 in 2018. It attributed the decline, among other things, to improved capabilities to react to poaching incidents linked to better situational awareness and deployment of technology. Although an arsenal of technologies have been used in the fight against rhino poaching in South Africa, it’s worth noting the role artificial intelligence (AI) is playing. Among those at the forefront of the fight against rhino poaching has been trans-frontier conservation non-profit Peace Parks Foundation. About two years ago Peace Parks, in collaboration with Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife and working closely with Microsoft installed an AI-powered system comprised of 150 cameras in a number of rhino reserves managed by Emzemvelo in the KwaZulu-Natal province. When triggered, the camera traps send an email of the captured image to Peace Parks’ proprietary AI solution – SnapCatch – which then makes use of Microsoft Azure functions to identify any people or vehicles in the photo. In instances where people or vehicles are detected – positive detections – the SnapCatch app sends the photo to rangers as an alert with a GPS location, as well as information

on the target’s direction of travel. Doug Gillings, who heads up the Peace Parks’ Combatting Wildlife Crime department, said in February that the solution is “very simple and straightforward” to operate from a field or game reserve perspective. “You create an account on the SnapCatch app, configure the alert process and then add the email address that it generates to the legacy camera trap,” explained Gillings. The system is not without its difficulties. He pointed out that due to the remoteness and harshness of the environment in which the solutions are deployed in, maintaining the hardware’s batteries, data management and protecting from damage by wildlife are big challenges. “Keeping the complexities and customisations server side, has simplified things significantly as the solution is hardware agnostic and very cheap to replace,” said Gillings The need for AI The more than 150 cameras that make up the system generate more than 28 000 images a month. Gillings pointed out that sifting through all this data to find poachers, as well as reserving staff time to find valid information from among the false positive detections –

Microsoft’s AI for Earth programme, and see the future in open source and open standards to enable the agility of bespoke developments and innovations to be married with legacy systems as well as integrated with new and innovative developments,” she added. Despite Peace Parks’ belief in the role of tech like AI in fighting poaching, the non-profit emphasised that these technologies can’t be successful when “used in a vacuum”. “Technology only works where effectively integrated as part of a larger ecosystem of people, tools, processes, policies, regulations and laws – that, when applied in harmony will achieve the type of successes that South Africa continues to achieve in decreasing the number of rhinos poached each year, “Technology is nothing without those who are on the ground ready to receive, analyse and act on the data provided,” he further explained. So, while Peace Parks has found innovative ways to fight poaching through tech, the organisation maintains a holistic approach to combating wildlife crime. Peace Parks goes about this by enhancing protected area support on the ground, halting illegal trade through counter-trafficking activities, and by reducing demand through awareness as well as behavioural change campaigns – thereby impacting on all levels of the socalled wildlife crime supply chain. With startups like Cape AI having expressed interest in running pilots in national parks and game reserves where the firm will use deep learning to analyse data to proactively identify poachers and animals in danger, it’s likely we will see AI play an increasingly important role in the fight against wildlife poaching on the continent. ai

For a more technical explanation on how Peace Parks solution works, check out this Microsoft Developer Blog post https://bit.ly/2Pkyvls

1ST QUARTER 2020

‘Technologies serve as a multiplication tool’ Owing to the sheer scale of the landscapes they protect, together with challenges like remote and sometimes inaccessible terrain, conservation areas across the continent struggle with resource limitations. Gillings believes technology has the ability to significantly multiply how effective staff can become. “Technologies serve as a multiplication tool – to enable us to act in line with the immense scale and tempo that is necessary to stand against current environmental challenges,” he said. Peace Parks AI-powered anti-poaching system forms part of its smart park technology strategy which focuses on interactive and agile deployments that enable the non-profit to assist conservation agencies like Ezemvelo to incrementally deploy solutions as fast as possible in a way that enables refinement and enhancement as needed. Gillings explained that the smart park technology strategy focuses on data collection, built networks and mechanisms to centralise information in a way that leverages the elasticity of the cloud to enable Peace Parks to effortlessly scale. “SnapCatch is fully deployed through DevOps for example, enabling our infrastructure and code to be version controlled as we go,” he added. Peace Parks is also in the process of building an open source community around its solutions in hopes that it can rapidly scale out and make the solutions accessible to as many parks as possible. “The above approach has enabled us to be very slim on dedicated resources to manage the ecosystem of tech,” he said. Gillings said many interested parties are looking at implementing similar solutions – some which are either edge or server based, based on local operating conditions and limitations. “We are also collaborating with a number of them through

Picture are (standing) Doug Gillings (Programme Manager: Combatting Wildlife Crime, Peace Parks Foundation) and Herman Stander (Technology Implementation Manager: Combatting Wildlife Crime, Peace Parks Foundation)

7 SYNAPSE

caused by wind, temperature and animal movements – is an “unmanageable task”. “The AI successfully manages to sift through these detections and lift out those photos that show people and vehicles – about 3% of the total number of photos – thereby reducing the number of alerts that rangers need to review to just under 900,” he explained. “Just recently the cameras alerted the ground staff to human movement, which allowed them to mobilise swift response and co-ordinated anti-poaching action that resulted in the capture of the identified person, who did turn out to be a poacher,” he pointed out. It also helps that the cameras that form part of the system act as a deterrent on their own. Peace Parks is currently scaling up the system from the 150 initial cameras to about 400. The system is not currently being used to forecast poacher movements. However, Peace Parks says its AI journey roadmap includes plans to deploy that functionality systematically as the use and deployment of the system matures. “The next step is to focus on the addition of various custom AIs to SnapCatch in order to gain additional insights and expand functionality,” added Gillings.

SOUTH AFRICAN AI TECH STARTUP GotBot Secures Multi-million-rand Investment from Capacitech South Africa’s Artificial Intelligence startup GotBot has received a significant investment boost to the value of R2,5-million from venture capital firm, Capacitech. The first such investment of its kind for Gotbot AI, the startup intends to use this investment to accelerate the development of its software and software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform.

GOTBOT WAS founded in 2016 by Chris Green and Nick Argyros, along with Chief Operational Officer, Craig McLeod. In the same year, the tech startup launched an automated social commerce product called Get It and have since shown steady growth with the development of their flagship product Custom Care. They quickly acquired key clients such as Toyota, RCS, African Bank, Nissan, Flight Centre, Sanlam, Home Choice and Old Mutual Finance, to name a few. Custom Care is a machine learning platform that automates conversations between brands and their customers, focused on increasing and improving customer experience through alwayson Machine Learning and real-time training. The platform aggregates multiple digital messaging services (WhatsApp, SMS, Webchat, Facebook Messenger, Instagram, Twitter etc.) into one dashboard from where the bot can be trained in real-time using relevant data. In addition, the rich messaging capabilities allow for a very flexible, fast and practical user experience. “We are proud to have partnered with Matthew Emmanuel and Jaco De Wet of Capacitech, who specialise in working

with startups that use technology to scale, specifically to advise and enable in the areas of technology, marketing and human resources,” said Argyros and Green. Capacitech specialise in working with startups that use technology to scale, specifically to advise and enable in the areas of technology, marketing and human resources. Capacitech aims to become a leading Pan-African contributor in the tech startup and seed investment space. Investments are made in parallel with partner collaborations to help foster innovative ideas into successful businesses. “With a diverse team and focused leadership, GotBot had already achieved significant market exposure in the South African start-up ecosystem. Our synergies combined into a formal partnership in 2019, and we are extremely proud to be an ongoing enabler to GotBot as they expand into other African markets and beyond.” said Capacitech Founder, Matthew Emanuel. In addition to deciding to back Gotbot AI, Capacitech has also executed successful investments in 2019 which include companies incorporated in Delaware, Mauritius and South Africa. ai

SIERRA LEONEAN MOBILE

Financial Literacy App Mosabi Selected for 1ST QUARTER 2020

Injini’s Edtech Incubation programme

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Mosabi, a financial literacy mobile app developed in Sierra Leone that leverages data analytics to drive financial inclusion, has been selected for the fourth cohort of Injini’s edtech incubation programme. CAPE TOWN-BASED Injini announced in February that it had selected Mosabi together with five other startups namely 1 Million Teachers, Ambani Africa, Lumen Labs, Roundafire and Smartix Education. Mosabi was founded in 2016 by a team that includes CEO John Roberts, COO Julie Monniot-Gaillis, CIO Chris Czerwonka, CTO Dan Frost, chief creative officer Kayee Au and Patrick Steele. The startup is building a digital platform that connects potential borrowers to lenders in emerging markets with the goal of increasing its clients’ income. Mosabi does this by using machine learning to create customised training solutions and linkages to lending institutions. The startup gathers data from its users and passes it through an artificial intelligence (AI) system that provides credit risk

analysis based on user and market indicators. Mosabi uses this analysis to create a baseline score and a tailored training regime. The system then populates a profile which it shares with its partners. The startup, which effectively straddles the edtech and fintech verticals, has won a number of awards. These include accolades at the 2016 Global EdTech Startup Award, first runner-up in the most scalable category at the 2017 UN ITU Telecom World SME Awards and winner of the 2017 Sierra Leone FinTech Challenge. In 2018 Mosabi was also crowned the winner of the Société Générale Pan-African Innovation Challenge. Continuing with its winning streak, the startup was named one of three winners of the 2019 Global FinTech Hackcelerator. ai

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ROBOTIC PROCESS AUTOMATION (RPA)

is the Path to AI

1ST QUARTER 2020

Lenore Keerigan UIPath’s Country Director for South Africa, talks exclusively to Synapse Magazine about the path to AI using RPA

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WHAT ARE some of the main things that African or African-based businesses looking to introduce artificial intelligence (AI) should consider? We are seeing the biggest implementation of AI in business processes related to Customer Experience e.g. processing of claims, complaints, call centres, applications, etc. Improved customer experience is one of the highest focus areas for CEOs in a competitive and economically constrained market. There is plenty of hype around AI, but a word of warning – many current AI initiatives work in isolation and have shown limited success. So, business leaders are still wondering where to start. This is the beauty of Robotic Process Automation (RPA) - companies can leverage the automation platforms whose software robots are already using AI and Machine Learning algorithms, making RPA the enabler for organisations to introduce AI into the standard business processes. RPA is the path to AI. Which industries / sectors stand to benefit the most from introducing RPA or AI to their business processes and which ones should definitely be thinking about implementing this technology? While the banking and financial services have pioneered the field of automation, at UiPath we have seen deployments in every industry, from manufacturing to retail, to aviation and the hotel industry, to the legal profession and the public sector. Functions like human resources, finance and accounting, contact

centres, accounts payable, claims processing which are common across industries abound in repetitive, rules-based tasks that can and should be automated as a means to not only improve customer service, but also boost employee engagement and satisfaction. UiPath is promoting an Automation First mindset to organisations of all sizes, meaning that we offer them an end-to-end hyper-automation platform to practically eradicate the mundane and boring tasks from the job descriptions of the human employees allowing them to get involved in the more valuable and creative aspects of their jobs. Let the robots count the beans, and the humans analyse the data brought forth by the robots. What could go wrong when AI is not implemented well, can you give some real-world examples? In the area of Machine Learning (ML) there have been some high-profile cases of undesirable outcomes. The first was when a leading software company let a chatbot out ‘in the wild’ and left it to learn based on conversations people had with the robot. It took less than 24 hours for users on Twitter to corrupt the robot resulting in it spewing out offensive content. Another MLrelated high-profile case was a CV screening algorithm that a leading Cloud Platform company implemented being scrapped immediately after it showed a bias against women. Both these examples show that you need to control the data that is being fed to the algorithms for their

“

”

Not plan for change management – like any technology solution there needs to be planning for changes. In the RPA world changes to underlying system can lead to automations breaking and needing upgrades. This needs to be catered for in the setup of the operating model. In the Machine Learning world, the quality and performance of a model can deteriorate over time and needs to be measured. There needs to be plans around how and when models will be retrained if their performance deteriorates beyond a certain threshold. How is the Return On Investment (ROI) for AI or RPA measured? How should companies go about this and what should they look out for? Some of the benefits are very tangible and quantifiable, such as human hours saved by automation. It is important to capture the metrics around the process before the automation has been implemented, to allow a post-change measurement and thus the benefit calculation to be completed. This sort of calculation is something companies are familiar with from the inception of software solutions. UiPath has tools in the area of task and process mining that can help with all of this. It’s no secret that when given a repetitive task such as invoice processing, the software robot will pay the same attention to the 500th invoice while a human employee might have errors. So, accuracy is definitely a key benefit of automation. Compliance to standards and governance models is another area where significant benefits are realised. More difficult benefits to measure and quantify are things like increased customer satisfaction as customers, for example, are able to get information or technical support or counseling faster. A key area in which RPA is having a tangible impact, that is not always easy to measure, is employee happiness. We are finding those companies who have embraced the mantra of ‘A Robot for Every Person’ and are freeing up their employees from mundane tasks are making them happier in the workplace. ai

1ST QUARTER 2020

What would you say are the top three things to avoid or not do when implementing AI in a business? In other words, what are some of the common mistakes that businesses often make in implementing the technology? Set expectations too high – The term ‘Artificial Intelligence’ sets people’s expectations very high and they expect autonomous, sentient beings able to perform anything better than humans. We are not close to that in reality. It is key that expectations are managed, the use case is explained properly to all the teams involved, and specific metrics and KPIs are set up to ensure we understand what is regarded as success, and how we can measure it. Too big, too soon – Often projects try and automate too much of a process, or try to go too broad with the scope of their AI solution from the outset. It is usually best practice to always start with a smaller subset of a process or area and demonstrate a live example that brings in value before expanding.

RPA is the enabler for organisations to introduce AI into the standard business processes. RPA is the path to AI. - Lenore Kerrigan

11 SYNAPSE

training. If the training data can be influenced by outsiders, and they have malicious intentions, they can affect the behaviour. In the CV screening case, the question comes up around how fair the training set is, and if it contains any bias, or is disproportionate. Care needs to be taken when selecting which factors you want the ML algorithm to be able to use when being trained, and later when making its predictions. The old saying of ‘garbage in, garbage out’ applies very strongly to the Machine Learning world. But there’s also another way to look at what can go wrong, not specifically because of the model, but on how people perceive it. One is that you cannot explain exactly how it’s working, what influences what. So, for example, if you’re using a deep learning algorithm to decide if a customer is suitable or not for a loan, if the answer is no, you cannot explain what influenced that answer. There is no formula saying 37% of the result is influenced by salary, 15% by the area where you live, 22% by the profession, etc. The second is with the case of instant answers which are considered amazing most of the times except when they’re negative. For example an insurance company using AI had to delay the response with 24 hours if it was no, because 90% of the time they received complaints when after a few minutes of submission the customer received a response saying the insurance won’t cover that. With a 24 hour delay, the complaints dropped to 20-30%.

ZINDI

to Run Africa’s First

Inter-University AI Hackathon Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning competition platform Zindi is set to run UmojaHack Africa, the first-ever inter-university AI hackathon for students across Africa, in March.

UMOJAHACK AFRICA, is open to student teams at universities across Africa and will consist of a network of hackathon events that will be held simultaneously across the continent on 21 March. Zindi anticipates that up to 20 universities and over 300 students will participate in the hackathon. Universities in South Africa, Zambia, Tanzania, Rwanda, Ghana, Kenya, Uganda, Egypt, Algeria, Nigeria and Ghana are among those that have confirmed participation in the event. Student teams of up to four people will represent their respective universities in the hackathon where they will compete for cash and in-kind prizes for the top three student teams, as well as for their universities. Zindi will offer a total prize pool of $2000 to the top three

teams, while the winning universities will get a share of $15 000. Winners will be determined based on their ranking on the Zindi leader board which will objectively rank all solutions. UmojaHack Africa is organised around three machine learning challenges of varying difficulty that speak to uniquely African challenges. These challenges will address issues that include gender, conservation, mobility, financial inclusion and agriculture. Technical content of the challenges may include computer vision, predictive analytics, classification, natural language processing and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) data. UmojaHack Africa is sponsored by African Bank and Alliance4ai with support from Data Science Nigeria. ai

GreenTec Capital Partners Invests in Moroccan Recruitment Platform Kwiks

1ST QUARTER 2020

German venture capital firm GreenTec Capital Partners has announced that it has made an

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undisclosed investment in Casablanca-based online recruitment platform Kwiks. KWIKS WAS launched in 2014 by founder and CEO Amine Khayatei Houssani. The startup’s platform helps users quickly recruit top-tier talent from its own curated talent pool as well as from public and private data sources. Using machine learning, Kwiks has developed an applicant tracking system that suggests matching profiles based on previous requests. Besides Morocco, the startup has operations in Belgium and France. Kwiks plans to expand its reach in Africa and to diversify its Francophone niché to include Anglophone candidates. The transaction marks GreenTec Capital’s first deal in the North African startup ecosystem. ai Kwiks founder and CEO Amine Khayatei Houssani with Zineb Khayatei

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ETHIOPIA

to Establish AI

R&D Centre

The Government of Ethiopia is set to establish an artificial intelligence (AI) research and development centre that helps startups and regulate the industry. In January 2020, the Ethiopian Council of Ministers approved a regulation that will facilitate the establishment of an AI Research and Development Centre. The regulation is expected to provide quality services, products and solutions for beginner developers working on artificial intelligence. Though the country had no regulatory framework to govern and embrace such technologies, individuals efforts have been bearing fruits in applying AI and robotics in Ethiopia.

1ST QUARTER 2020

Ethiopia’s Betelhem Dessie, one of the founders of iCogLabs, whose company was involved in the development of Sophia the Robot.

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In 2018 robotics lab iCog, founded by a 19-year-old Ethiopian, Betelhem Dessie, reported that the country’s first AI lab was involved in developing the now-world-famous Sophia the robot. With the aim of promoting the new AI industry, the oldest state higher education facility in Ethiopia, the Addis Ababa University also hosted the country’s first AI conference. In Africa countries like Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, and South Africa have been embracing AI, which has the potential to improve African lives in the socio-economic sector. In April 2019, Google introduced the first African AI research laboratory in Accra, Ghana. The lab will address many economic, political and environmental challenges across the continent using AI. In Kenya and Nigeria, AI focused start-ups have begun working on agricultural planning, reducing financial transaction costs, and improving public transportation access and efficiency. This latest move by Ethiopia is aimed at ensuring that developments in AI are utilized in Africa. ai

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IBM MASTER INVENTOR

and UN Artificia Intelligence Advisor

Neil Sahota to speak at AI Expo Africa 2020

1ST QUARTER 2020

The AI Media Group, organisers of Africa’s largest AI Business Event - AI Expo Africa - have announced that IBM Master Inventor and UN Artificial Intelligence Advisor Neil Sahota will speak at AI Expo Africa 2020.

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AI EXPO Africa is the continent’s largest B2B trade-focused Artificial Intelligence (AI) business event. The expo, now in its third year, has seen rapid growth as Africa embraces the practical real-world applications of AI. The continent’s leading AI gathering will be held at Century City Convention Centre in Cape Town 3-4th September 2020. AI Expo Africa Event Director Roy Bannister stated, “We’re really excited to welcome a leading global authority like Neil Sahota to our community. He has amassed 20+ years of business experience in a multitude of domains and has garnered 17 awards, with 26 publications and 15 patents under his belt. Neil’s thought leadership around helping clients and business partners create next generation products, powered by emerging technology will be highly valued by our community.” Besides lecturing at UC Irvine in the US, Sahota is also a keynote speaker and author on topics that include emerging technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI), Blockchain, as well as Entrepreneurship, Intrapreneurship, Innovation and Social Good. Sahota stated, “I am very excited to gain insights from the African AI Community. AI Expo Africa 2020 gives both myself and many business leaders the opportunity to immerse themselves in two days of real-world AI debate, talks and handson demos of the 4IR technologies that are changing business and society. It’s the largest event of its kind on the African continent and I’m looking forward to making a contribution.” At AI Expo Africa 2020 Sahota will talk on ‘The AI Frontier: A Great Divider or A Solution?’ and discuss techniques and tools that organizations and under-served communities can use to ideate and implement value added solutions. In addition, he will be hosting a Master Class on AI for Good coupled to social innovation models and joining an expert panel discussing ethics in AI. AI Expo Africa Event Co-founder Dr Nick Bradshaw stated, “His work experience spans multiple industries including legal services, healthcare, life sciences, retail, travel and transportation, energy and utilities, automotive, telecommunications, media, communications and government. He is also co-author of the best-selling book ‘Own the A.I. Revolution: Unlock Your Artificial Intelligence Strategy to Disrupt Your Competition” which will be available to expo delegates. Sahota joins a growing list of leading figures and companies that have engaged with the AI Expo Africa community, including the likes of AWS, Microsoft, Google Cloud, IBM, PWC, Kenyan Government, ITU, Nvidia, Intel, SA Government, Dimension

Data, UiPath, Blue Prism, Vodacom, Hikvision, SAP, SAS, French Embassy, Telkom, Deloitte, Accenture, EY, Persistent Systems, ABSA & Standard Bank. About Neil Sahota Neil’s work experience spans multiple industries including legal services, healthcare, life sciences, retail, travel and transportation, energy and utilities, automotive, telecommunications, media/ communication, and government. Moreover, he is one of the few people selected for IBM’s Corporate Service Corps leadership program that pairs leaders with NGOs to perform community-driven economic development projects. For his assignment, Neil lived and worked in Ningbo, China where he partnered with Chinese corporate CEOs to create a leadership development program. In addition, Neil partners with entrepreneurs to define their products, establish their target markets, and structure their companies. He is a member of several investor groups like the Tech Coast Angels and assists startups with investor funding. Neil also serves as a judge in various startup competitions and mentor in several incubator/accelerator programs. He actively volunteers with nonprofits for event management, fund raising, grant reviews, and site visits. Neil is an active member of the UCI Alumni Association and serves on the Board of Directors for the Orange County Marathon, supporting their work with the OC Kids program in fighting childhood obesity. About AI Expo Africa 2020 Produced by the AI Media Group and with 3000+ community members, AI Expo Africa is now entering its third successful year and is the largest B2B trade focused Artificial Intelligence, RPA & Data Science business conference in Africa. The 2020 edition of AI Expo Africa will run on 3 and 4 September 2020 at the world-class Century City Conference Centre, and builds upon the phenomenal success of the 2018 and 2019 events that cemented it as the largest gathering of its kind, with over 1000 registered delegates, decision makers, investors, buyers, suppliers, innovators, SMBs and global brands in the region. Those looking to attend the conference can save up to 30% on a super early bird ticket sale that ends on 29 February https:// www.quicket.co.za/events/85507-ai-expo-africa-2020/#/ Contact: enquiries@aiexpoafrica.com Web: www.aiexpoafrica.com

INTELLIGENT BUILDINGS: A Crucial Ally in The Fight Against Climate Change

There is little debate in academic circles as to the profound impact climate change has wreaked on the global economy. The Economist Intelligence Unit’s (EIU) Climate Change Resilience Index found that climate change could potentially be responsible for the global economy suffering losses amounting to a staggering $7.9 trillion by 2050. By Rudeon Snell, Senior Director: Intelligent Enterprise Solutions – EMEA at SAP

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THIS NUMBER is directly due to increases in droughts, wildfires, flooding, crop failures, and storms. In 2019 alone, extreme weather driven by climate change was responsible for the death, injury, displacement, and destruction of thousands across the globe. Not a single populated continent was left untouched by the devastating effects of climate change, with the economic impact of these catastrophes estimated to be billions of dollars.

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The Global Economic Impact of Climate Change Take, for example, the recent California wildfires in the USA. A report by Christian Aid estimates that the wildfires caused roughly $25bn in damages across the state, including the death of 87 people. Then there’s the damage left in the wake of typhoons Hagibis and Faxai, which caused more than $20bn of damage in Japan, and also disrupted the Rugby World Cup that was being held there. There were floods in Iran causing $8.3bn in damages, and cyclone Idai in Africa killed 1,300 people across Zimbabwe, Mozambique, and Malawi. In China, a total of 25 million people were affected by the disasters, with over 1.3 million having to be relocated, as the country was pummeled by floods, droughts, hail, and other geological disasters, leading to a direct economic loss of roughly $8bn. The situation is untenable, and without a concerted effort, the global socio-economic structure might very well be reshaped in ways society cannot even begin to fathom. Davos 2020: Global Leaders Emphasize Extreme Risks of Climate Change One of the key take-aways from Davos this year was the need for global leaders to respond to the risks posed by

climate change in a concerted manner. The fight against climate change is a top priority at the World Economic Forum of 2020, as for the first time in history, environmental concerns ranked in the top five long-term global risks for business leaders, investors, and policy-makers as per the WEF’s annual report, recently published. Respondents to the WEF’s 2020 Global Risks Perception Survey ranked extreme weather events, climate action failure, natural disasters, biodiversity loss, and human-made environmental disasters far ahead of more well-known threats such as data fraud, cyberattacks, water scarcity, global governance failures, and assets bubbles. What appears clear is that business is finally waking up to the imminent threat of climate change and is doing something about it. SAP announced at DAVOS that it’s joining the CEO Carbon Neutral Challenge issued by Gucci President and CEO Marco Bizzarri, pledging to support global business in the transition to a low-carbon economy. “SAP is not only a world-leading innovation and technology company, we are a world-leading sustainability company,” said Jennifer Morgan, Co-CEO and Member of the Executive Board, SAP. Intelligent Buildings Are Critical to A Low Carbon Future A recent report by Market Research highlights that the global Intelligent Building market is set to grow from $60.7bn in 2019 to $105.8bn by 2024, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 11.7%. The major factors driving this growth projection include the maturing of enabling technologies such as the Internet of Things, decrease in connectivity and hardware costs, regulatory pressures for carbon emission reduction, as well as increased pressure to reduce building operating costs. Continued on page 22

DATA SCIENCE

Competition Platform Zindi Hits 10 000-User Milestone Cape Town based artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning competition platform Zindi has announced that it now has over 10 000 registered users. ZINDI ENABLES organisations to collaborate with data scientists and AI practitioners in Africa to solve some of the continent’s most toughest challenges through machine learning and AI. The platform was founded in 2018 by CEO Celina Lee, COO Ekow Duker and Megan Yates. Lee said in a newsletter in February that

Zindi is really pleased by the growth of its community and platform. “In a little over a year, we’ve awarded almost $100 000 in prizes and have just celebrated our 10 000th user this month! We’re looking forward to double-digit growth this year as well,” added Lee.

Intelligent Buildings: A Crucial Ally in The Fight Against Climate Change

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Continued from page 20

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Buildings consume more energy than one would think. People eat, sleep, work, shop, and spend most of their leisure time in buildings, generally speaking. Whether they are high rise apartment blocks, large retail malls, massive commercial parks, or single-unit family homes, buildings collectively have an undeniable impact on the environment as a result of primarily energy consumption. Across Europe for example, residential buildings consume roughly 20% of the total primary energy generated. In Finland, the residential sector consumes 35% of total electricity consumption. While in North America, the nearly 115 million residential and commercial buildings consume an estimated 40% of the total U.S. energy generation. Considering this level of consumption, imagine using smart, energy efficient technologies that can reduce the energy consumption of a building by 40 to 50 percent. Imagine collectively being able to compound these energy savings across cities. Energy you don’t use is energy you don’t have to generate. If less energy is required in buildings, power plants don’t need to produce as much. This will bring down emissions produced at power plants, as well as the amount of natural resources burned for electricity generation. Intelligent Buildings are key to transforming energy sectors of nations and ultimately helping to shepherd in a low carbon future. A more sustainable, highly digital energy system is emerging, as the nature of the relationship between building energy supply and demand is an evolving one. By using sensor data generated from IoT devices combined with advanced analytics to help augment key business processes, Intelligent Buildings are able to direct automation and controls, improving building maintenance, building security, building analytics and building management, ultimately optimizing energy consumption, comfort, and experience. An example of this synergy was showcased when SAP partnered with the San Francisco 49ers from pre-game to final whistle to help improve operations and fan experience with real-time data across the entire stadium.

The Business Value of Intelligent Buildings It’s clear that a decrease in global building energy consumption would have a significant impact on reducing carbon emission levels, and ultimately slow global warming. As such, Intelligent Buildings have the potential to play a pivotal role in combating climate change. With lower energy consumption and improved energy management, businesses have a significant return on investment for Intelligent Buildings. The business value yielded from this investment makes for a compelling business justification as to why both private and public sectors should be embarking on a greener tomorrow. The business case almost makes itself. With the current technologies at our disposal and continuing improvement on that front, the ability to make meaningful changes that could yield positive results for years to come is within humanity’s grasp. Knowing what we know about cities today (their impact on the environment, the huge amount of energy buildings, city infrastructure consumed and their carbon footprint), the risks are huge should we instead wait for individuals to hopefully do the right thing. Pockets of change are insufficient to address such an enormous global challenge. Countries and cities can act boldly and implement legislation that encourages the conversion of existing buildings into energy-saving structures and make sure upcoming ones are built with smart technologies in the first place. To achieve significant results, it is imperative that mandated change be implemented at scale. Bold governments can take a stand by promulgating legislation to do away with low-efficiency and polluting power plants. Making this world inhabitable and sustainable for the nearly 10bn people expected to populate Earth by 2050 is a massive ambition, but one that can be accomplished with the right vision and decisive action. By bringing together know-how from the private sector and public sector support, the journey to combatting climate change through Intelligent Buildings has already started. ai For more information, visit the SAP News Center. Follow SAP on Twitter at @sapnews.

NETHERLANDS BUILDS Partnership Opportunities around 4IR for South Africa

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The Dutch Consulate in Cape Town is looking to partner with stakeholders in South Africa around developments in the economy around the Fourth Industrial Revolution, so says Sebastiaan Messerschmidt the Consul General in Cape Town for the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

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MESSERSCHMIDT WAS speaking on the sidelines of the third edition of the #cocreate Design Festival which was held on 24 and 25 February, in collaboration with the Craft and Design Institute at Guga S’thebe Cultural Centre in Langa, Cape Town. The festival’s theme this year was around digital inclusion, with a focus on the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) and its impact on creative industries. Messerschmidt said the Dutch Consulate is looking to partner with stakeholders in South Africa around developments in the economy around 4IR, including in the artificial intelligence (AI), big data and automation. “We’re venturing slowly into that space to see where we can partner up and where we can align and where we can help, looking at the challenges and work together on those,” said Messerschmidt. The event’s open plenary session was led by keynote speaker S’onqoba Vuba, co-founder and managing director

of Perpetu8 and member of the Presidential Commission on the 4IR. Messerschmidt said the goal of the event was to create partnerships around the challenges South Africa and the continent is facing through design thinking. #cocreate Design Festival featured tracks on ethics, gaming, wearables and immersive technologies in the arts. One of the highlights of the event was an Oxford-style debate on whether 4IR will solve Africa’s challenges. Watch the AI TV interview with Sebastian Messerschmidt, Consul General in Cape Town for the Kingdom of the Netherlands here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJgTZm-geb0&list=P LhuckWf9CH6srsqyrJ8sNPPCupmi7kWDg&index=2 ai For more on the exciting work being done by the Kingdom of the Netherlands in this space, visit: www.cocreatesa.nl

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SA FINTECH

Startup Jumo Raises $55-million in VC funding Cape Town-based fintech startup Jumo has raised $55-million in an equity and debt funding round from investors that include Goldman Sachs, Odey Asset Management and Leapfrog Investments.

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services and product features to suit individual JUMO ANNOUNCED that the funding will entrepreneurs and their specific circumstances. support its expansion into new markets and the In addition Jumo also uses AI to reduce bias launch of new products. The startup, which was in its financial decision-making processes. founded in 2015 by CEO Andrew Watkins-Ball, By using these technologies, Jumo says it is plans to enter India, Ivory Coast and Nigeria this able to reach millions of previously financially year. excluded people. Jumo builds next-generation financial Watkins-Ball, commenting in the same services for emerging market entrepreneurs statement, said he was excited for Jumo’s next and has partnered with financial service phase. providers as well as mobile network operators “This backing will help us build a better to provide insurance, credit and savings business and break new ground. The strong solutions to customers. Jumo CEO Andrew vote of confidence, along with the world-class The fintech startup uses artificial intelligence Watkins-Ball tech talent we now have in the business means (AI) and machine learning to more accurately we can achieve exceptional outcomes for our model a customer’s risk and connect them with partners and customers,” he added. appropriate financial choices. Last November, Jumo announced it had served 15 Jumo does this through its advanced data engine which million customers across six markets in Ghana, Kenya, runs machine learning algorithms on millions of mobile Pakistan, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. wallet, cell phone and transactional data signals. The startup has disbursed over $1.8-billion since it was The startup then uses this data to build accurate founded and raised over $145-million in venture capital credit profiles for people in emerging markets. Jumo funding to date. ai says these data-driven insights allow the firm to shape

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N W O T E P CA

K E E W TECH

Cape Town, Western Cape – Africa’s leading digital hub. A place with a world-class digital ecosystem, where resources and talent meet commercial and social opportunity.

Amazon chooses Cape Town. The Western Cape has worldclass tech skills and capabilities. Cape Town is the only AWS region in Africa.

Cape Town / Stellenbosch tech ecosystem employs more than Lagos and Nairobi combined.* (Source: endeavor analysis 2018)

Naspers, Africa’s highest valued tech giant is based in Cape Town.

½ of the top universities in Africa

are from SA, with 3 located in the Western Cape.*

Cape Town is ranked

cities in the top at the forefront of global tech.*

(Source: QS World Ranking 2019)

Cape Town has

(Source: Saville consulting 2019)

co-working more than spaces and more than

20 local and

The Cape Innovation & Technology Initiative (CiTi) is one of the oldest tech incubators on the continent.

international accelerators.

Cape Town has the lion’s share of the headquarters of majority of new startups in the e-commerce ecosystem in SA. The Western Cape has widespread fibre networks and

4G coverage with 5G being rolled out.

The Western Cape is connected to the world via multiple submarine cable networks. Open access data centres and global cloud services

6th most affordable city compared with 30 top global tech cities. Cape Town is the

(Source: Saville consulting 2019)

MICROSOFT LAUNCHES New $40-million, Five-year AI for Health Programme

Microsoft has launched AI for Health, a new $40-million five-year philanthropic programme that aims to empower researchers and communities with artificial intelligence (AI) to improve the health of people and communities around the world.

AI FOR Health is the fifth Microsoft AI for Good programme – a $165-million initiative that aims to assist researchers, nonprofits and organisations with advanced technologies to help unlock solutions to the biggest challenges facing society today. The AI for Health initiative will focus on three key areas, namely quest for discovery, global health insights and health equality. The programme aims to accelerate medical research in

order to advance prevention, diagnoses and treatment of diseases. In addition, AI for Health will also seek to increase shared understanding of mortality and longevity to protect against global health crises. The initiative, which is led by Microsoft chief data analytics officer Johan Kahan, also intends to reduce health inequality and improve access to care for underserved populations. ai

KENYAN DATA ANALYTICS Startup SuperFluid Labs Wins Pilot Opportunity with Engie Africa

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Nariobi-based data analytics startup SuperFluid Labs has won an opportunity to pilot a project with French multinational utility company Engie Africa.

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SUPERFLUID LABS beat four other startups to be named the winner of the ENGIE Challenge at the Africa Tech Summit which was held in Kigali, Rwanda. The challenge offered credit scoring startups with the potential to provide innovative solutions to both existing and future Engie customers the chance to pitch on the Africa Startup Summit stage. Engie set up the challenge to identify credit scoring solutions capable of providing proper, accurate, efficient and relevant business intelligence to improve and optimise the prospection and acquisition of future customers, financing schemes for its existing and future customers, and scenarios to valorise customer data that aim to design customer profiles and match offers to customer needs.

SuperFluid Labs has developed a proprietary platform which is powered by data analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) with solutions for digital lending, credit scoring, business intelligence and consumer scoring. The startup uses its platform to mine customer transactional data to automatically predict future business events, reveal customer behaviours and trends, enhance engagement, as well as reduce churn risk and increase overall profitability. SuperFluid Labs was founded in 2015 by CEO Timothy Kotin and director William Marks and has offices in Accra and Frankfurt. German venture capital firm GreenTec Capital Partners is one of its main backers. SuperFluid Labs is in discussions with Engie over testing the efficiency and viability of its solution within Engie Africa’s business framework over a period of six months. Depending on the results of the testing phase, the solution will be integrated within Engie Africa’s business portfolio for further co-development. Prospective locations for the testing phase include Benin, Ivory Coast, Morocco, Nigeria, South Africa, Rwanda and Tanzania. Engie Africa head of innovation and digital Carole Henry said the company has a “good customer,” orientation. “I think that the product and the team as well are quite agile, and may provide a solution that fits with our needs. We are eager to consider a partnership with them,” added Henry. ai

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SOUTH AFRICAN REVENUE Service to Adopt AI, Machine

Learning in New Modernisation Drive

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The South African Revenue Service (SARS) has announced that it intends to adopt machine learning, artificial intelligence and make use of data-driven insights as part of a new modernisation drive.

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SARS COMMISSIONER Edward Kieswetter said in a statement in February that the revenue service cannot ignore the power of a data and technology enabled organisation as well as the impact it will have on the future world of work. “We can however prepare for it by consciously and actively managing the interplay between human effort and artificial intelligence. Today we take a conscious step towards building a smart modern SARS, with unquestionable integrity, that is trusted and admired,” emphasised Commissioner Kieswetter. Commissioner Kieswetter, who joined SARS in May last year, has constantly emphasized the need to boost the organization’s technological capacity and deriving insights from data, for a “re-imagined SARS of the future”. The Commissioner has also been on an extensive consultation campaign with staff which has redefined SARS’ strategic objectives. This, SARS said in its statement, has created a need for a high-level internal and external recruitment drive to attract highly talented professionals and executives to bring SARS up to speed with advances in big data and artificial intelligence in the tax and customs environment. SARS’ strategic objectives include, amongst others, providing clarity and certainty of tax obligations, making it easier for taxpayers and traders to comply, detecting those who do not comply and making it hard and costly for them. The organisation said it is also in the process of modernising its systems to provide digital and

streamlined services and rebuild public trust and confidence in the tax and customs administration. SARS has advertised strategic leadership positions to attract talented and passionate executives to fill the roles of Chief Data Scientist, Chief Technology Innovation Officer, Chief Financial Officer, Chief Procurement Officer, Director Business Segment: Large & International Taxpayers (formerly Large Business Centre), Director Individual Segment: Wealthy & Complex Taxpayers, and nine regional Directors as well as a Director: Taxpayer Engagement, among others. SARS said it is keen to grow and develop internal staff by recruiting some of these positions from within, however the Commissioner also want to enrich the organisation’s current “gene pool” with future oriented skills and some fresh perspective. Commissioner Kieswetter said the recruitment process will reaffirm SARS’ commitment to the transformation agenda of our country and the advancement of employment equity and diversity in the workplace. “We cannot simply talk about the Fourth Industrial Revolution. It is upon us, and we must redouble our efforts to future proof ourselves by building an intelligent organization that will provide a world-class service to compliant taxpayers, but equally detect those who are non-compliant and make it costly and hard for them,” “Our Vision 2024 is to build a smart modern SARS, with unquestionable integrity, trusted by government, the public and our international peers,” added Commissioner Kieswetter. ai

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HOW ENVISIONIT

Deep AI wants to Democratise Access to Healthcare in Africa at 2000 X-rays Per Minute Despite Africa having the world’s youngest population, the continent suffers from a shortage of paediatric specialists. Estimates put the number of fellowship trained paediatric radiologists on the continent at less than 20. by Daniel Mpala

1ST QUARTER 2020

IT’S TELLING that a country as developed as South Africa only got its first qualified paediatric radiologist in 2010. That specialist, Dr Jaishree Naidoo, believes that human capacity alone cannot solve the challenges the continent faces in that field. Now, together with co-founders Terence Naidu and Andrei Migatchev, Dr Naidoo is looking to take on the shortage of paediatric specialists with artificial intelligence (AI) through her medtech startup EnvisionIt Deep AI which was launched last year in January.

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“We have achieved an accuracy of 97% across 20 labels of pathology,” she explains. EnvisionIt Deep AI states on its website that its aim is not to replace radiologists. Instead, the company hopes its solution will enable radiologists to prioritise urgent cases and by doing so offer a more “patientcentric” model of health service delivery. Since its launch, the company has been busy working on research and development and is currently conducting clinical trials. At the time of writing, Dr Naidoo said EnvisionIt Deep AI had four consulting radiologists working on the training and validation of its model. “With every model we develop, we require human resources to train and validate the model. Once we have achieved good accuracies on each model the need for the HR is less due to the machine learning capability of our model,” she explained. It’s likely that the company Andrei Migatchev Chief Jaishree Naidoo Chief Terence Naidu Business – whose main backers are Technology Officer Executive Officer Development holdings company Envisionit & Co-founder of EDAI & Co-founder of EDAI & Co-founder of EDAI Capital Solutions – will be first to market in South Africa with AI in radiology. “We knew with technology, we can get a machine to Dr Naidoo said the healthtech startup is looking to augment and multiply our roles. As founders we combined conclude clinical trials by mid year and thereafter signour skills in radiology, machine learning and business to up additional clients. create a AI radiology business that will democratise access “We hope to raise additional capital Q3 as we want to diagnostic healthcare in Africa,” she says. to scale our offering and distribution into the rest of Africa,” she added. 2000 x-rays in one minute Launched in January 2019, EnvisionIt Deep AI uses Innovation changing landscape, but slow AI to streamline and improve medical diagnoses for adoption, change in culture radiologists. She believes that with AI, the spread of knowledge and The medtech startup has developed an AI solution technology will intensify. called RADIFY which Dr Naidoo says can analyse 2000 Continued on page 34 x-rays in one minute.

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SA’S ENVISIONIT DEEP AI accepted into Founders Factory Africa venture scale programme

Johannesburg-based medtech startup Envisionit Deep AI is one of five companies that have been accepted into Founders Factory Africa’s six month venture scale programme which kicked off on 3 February.

THE JOHANNESBURG-BASED venture development company, along with its corporate investors Standard Bank and Netcare, selected EnvisionIt Deep AI together with LocumBase (SA), Bwala Africa (Kenya), Akili Labs (SA) and Foodlocker (Nigeria). EnvisionIt Deep AI, which was founded in 2019 by CEO paediatric radiologist Dr Jaishree Naidoo, CTO Andrei Migatchev and Terrence Naidu, utilises AI to streamline and improve medical diagnostics for radiologists. The company is part of the Envisionit Group. Founders Factory Africa’s venture scale programme provides participants with financial cash investments of £30 000 as well as £220 000 in tailored support services which include product development, data science, engineering, business development, growth marketing and user experience and user interface (UX/UI). Envisionit Deep AI, along with the four other companies,

will also have access to exclusive partnerships with Standard Bank and Netcare. These, the venture development company said, unlock many of the scaling challenges that businesses face. These include distribution channels, customer acquisition, pilots, data, IP and expertise, essentially offering the startups an “unfair advantage” in the competitive marketplace. Dr Naidoo said she and her team are “very excited” to be partnering with Founders Factory Africa and Netcare. She said the partnership will help Envisionit Deep AI to achieve its strategic goals at a faster rate “We believe they are the perfect partners for the stage we are in our business. Founders Factory providing the world wide support and knowledge gained in scaling tech businesses and Netcare giving us access and distribution to achieve that scale. ai

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How Envisionit Deep AI wants to Democratise Access to Healthcare in Africa at 2000 X-rays Per Minute

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Continued from page 32 “It will be transformative and will help us solve some of the challenges that we couldn’t solve before,” she adds. However, she points out that despite innovative solutions like her firm’s changing the healthcare landscape, adoption and change in culture among medical professionals isn’t happening as fast. “Most healthcare professionals are resistant to change as they see it as a threat. I have been giving presentations on AI in order to educate healthcare workers and encourage them to embrace such technology,” says Dr Naidoo. She says another key obstacle to contend with is around broadband accessibility. This challenge, she believes, can be overcome with on-site solutions and mobile app solutions that are not heavily reliant on network access.

“Ultrasound is a relatively inexpensive and portable modality of diagnosis for use as point of care. The procedure is non-invasive and it quickly gives radiologists information necessary to make diagnoses,” she says. She adds that sonography machines are being made smaller and smaller, making them more and more accessible to developing countries. “Combining ultrasound with AI technology will achieve radiology level performance on ultrasound images,” she says. Dr Naidoo says as with any technology, and more so in healthcare, there are ethical issues on who takes liability. “Ultimately the ethical use of AI in radiology should promote well-being, minimize harm and ensure that the benefits and harms are distributed among stakeholders in a just manner,” she adds. ai

ZIMBABWEAN INVENTOR

Open-sources AI-enabled Edtech Solution with Potential

to Provide Free Education to Millions across Africa

1ST QUARTER 2020

The UNESCO Institute for Statistics estimates that as of 2018, 1 in 5 children (over 32 million) of primary school age and over 28 million adolescents in sub-Saharan Africa did not have access to education.

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WILLIAM SACHITI, the founder of UK-based Academy of Robotics – which is currently developing autonomous delivery vehicles - has come up with a solution that could potentially solve this challenge. In late January, the Zimbabwean-born inventor published a white paper that details Trees of Knowledge, an invention that uses an artificial intelligence (AI) enabled and solar-powered mini-computer to provide a server that users can access via local WiFi at no cost. The entire set-up, including its power source and casing, is about the size of an apple, costs around $100 and can be run off a small rechargeable battery. The system runs on a Tree OS, a custom Linux distribution which Sachiti has developed. In addition, Trees of Knowledge uses an AI-powered digital avatar which is designed to act as a “virtual teacher”. Sachiti pointed out that learning independently can be challenging for students who might end up getting stuck on a particular area that they might not fully understand, which might hinder their progress. “So the ‘teacher’ who teaches around the tree can now be replaced or certainly amplified with a local store of videos of all the same educational content, which in some cases this could come with a narrow AI avatar to assist the learner,” he said. The AI-assistant, Sachiti believes, will be very beneficial to learners. This as AI assistants can track learner progress and test them based on how far they have gone. The idea is the invention, which will be installed on trees in remote areas, will constantly stream pre-loaded educational content to users within a 100-metre radius of the system for free. Sachiti wants the educational content for the system to be developed by local educators. Continued on page 38

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Continued from page 36

1ST QUARTER 2020

“I envisage speaking with African educators, paying to create video content on subjects in local languages and then propagating it,” he explained in the whitepaper. Beyond its application in education, the system can also be used to provide contextual knowledge in places like national parks and hiking trails. The system is designed to not require any maintenance besides replacement of the power pack after every two to three years. Sachiti said he decided to open-source the project to enable anyone to create, replicate or produce the technology. “While I would love to spearhead this project, I have

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current commitments to my existing project Kar-go where my team and I are working on commercialising self-driving vehicles in Europe,” he explained in a post on LinkedIn. Sachiti said he has been overwhelmed by response to the innovation, with initial expressions of interest having come from Zimbabwe as well as from Uganda, Tanzania, and South Africa. The inventor has also been approached by a number of tech organisations and major non-governmental organisations, including representatives from WorldVision and Save the Children who are in discussion around the implementation of the project. You can check out the whitepaper here. ai

So you want a

CHATBOT…

Here’s what you should consider about introducing the technology to your business

4TH QUARTER 2019

If you run or work in a company that frequently communicates with a large user base you probably want a way to quickly and instantly communicate with and perhaps resolve complaints with your customers around the clock. by Daniel Mpala

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40 FinChatBot’s Antoine Paillusseau

YOU MIGHT even have come across interesting data like findings by global research and advisory firm Gartner that by the end of the year up to 85% of customer interactions will be handled by virtual customer assistants or chatbot technology. Or the more C-suite enticing prediction by UK-based market research and business intelligence company Juniper that chatbot conversations will contribute up to $8-billion in cost savings by 2022. The emergence of conversational AI, and by extension chatbots, has enabled those across the retail, financial services, credit, insurance and travel industries to provide personalised customer experiences at scale. As FinChatBot co-founder and CEO Antoine Paillusseau points out, this is a “booming area” due to the advances that have been made in natural language processing (NPL) and speech generation, not just in South Africa but globally. Continued on page 42

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So you want a chatbot… Continued from page 40 The Johannesburg-based firm’s work with major African banks and insurance companies has resulted in case studies showing up to 29% revenue growth and 93% customer satisfaction. “Most businesses understand the importance of digitising certain aspects of their business and are taking the necessary steps to investigate and implement solutions. “The success of these solutions, however, depends on a variety of factors such as suitability of the solutions and the going support and optimisation to ensure a positive customer experience,” says Paillusseau. But, what should businesses looking to incorporate the technology consider? How do you end up with a great customer service tool and not a user frustrating gimmick?

1ST QUARTER 2020

Build to help users Nick Argyros, the CEO of Johannesburg-based GotBot – which develops chatbots for the retail and financial sectors – says companies get the best success out of their bots if they build them with the intention of helping their users.

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GotBot’s Nick Argyros

His firm too has seen an uptake in the use of the technology in South Africa. GotBot COO Craig McLeod believes chatbots will become a commodity-based technology that will need to be incorporated into the business customer care strategy. “Many large or medium sized businesses are focusing on efficiencies and automation in order to help with customer engagement,” he points out. Argyros points out that chatbots are capable of

efficiently processing tasks at “lightning speeds” while collecting data. “Some examples of these tasks are answering FAQs and processing complaints, marketing tasks such as responding to targeted adverts and competitions, sales processes such as onboarding new clients and helping customers find new products, as well as financial services task such as providing statements and invoices as well as more complex functions such as customer profile vetting for credit applications,” he adds. Decide on what to automate For Paillusseau, the first step is to decide on what to automate. He says it is crucial to try to find a “quick win” that will have a strong impact on a company’s bottom line, like improving sales or enhancing the call centre process. Argyros shares a similar view. He believes “a lot of thought” should be put into what the problem being solved actually is, and that it is important to identify where the technology will add most value to the business. Paillusseau says it is also important that companies evaluate their current customer journey in line with what their systems provide. “You don’t want to change your whole internal process and system,” he cautions. Partner with experts “Partner with the right experts to ensure the successful building, integration, testing and optimisation of your AI chatbot,” adds Paillusseau. He says there are scenarios where some companies have opted to develop a chatbot solution in-house, instead of partnering with an expert. “Without the necessary expertise, focus and optimisation, businesses can struggle to ensure their chatbot delivers the best customer experience,” says Paillusseau. As GotBot account manager Nick Thomson points out, building a successful chatbot is heavily dependant on a few skills. “If a company is looking to incorporate technology like this, the most important aspect is that the team includes someone who is passionate about innovating and using this technology to effectively connect with their audience. “The bot needs to be built with the intention of solving a problem for the users,” says Thomson. McLeod advises that companies need a product owner to steer the build and administration of the chatbot. “It’s imperative that an individual with data knowledge is able to decipher the chatbot reports in order to build better and more efficient flows,” he adds. Continued on page 58

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ENTERPRISE AI

startup InstaDeep Opens Sixth Office in Cape Town InstaDeep, a London-based startup that develops enterprise artificial intelligence (AI), has opened its sixth office in Cape Town.

1ST QUARTER 2020

The startup, which was founded in Tunisia in 2014 by CEO Karim Beguir and chief digital and visualisation officer Zohra Slim, has offices in Lagos, Nairobi, Paris and Tunisia. InstaDeep said in a statement that the February launch of its Cape Town office is part of a long-term strategy to build out the firm’s AI operations on the African continent and to strengthen the company’s position as one of Africa’s leading AI firms. InstaDeep uses its expertise in GPU-accelerated computing, deep learning and reinforcement learning to develop solutions for the electronic design, logistics, mobility and energy verticals. The firm’s Cape Town team – which includes AI researchers Arnu Pretorius and Elan van Biljon – will work on various research and applied projects across the globe, in addition to supporting business development opportunities in the region. Pretorius and Van Biljon authored the first-ever African research paper to be accepted at the Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS) in 2018. Pretorius’ research has also been published at the International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML) and he also co-authored a NeurIPS paper that was accepted at the 2019 Bayesian Deep Learning workshop.

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InstaDeep said both researchers have been ranked in the top 5% of reviewers for ICML and NeurIPS. Pretorius, commenting in the same statement, said InstaDeep’s Cape Town office provides great opportunities – not only on a personal level – but more importantly for the entire South African machine learning community. He pointed out that the country does not have many places where one can carry out top AI research, as well as work on cutting-edge deep reinforcement learning applications at scale. “To pursue these types of opportunities, top SA talent have often had to leave the country and we hope that this no longer will be the case. “Elan and I are proud and humbled to start the company’s SA journey. We are inspired by the long term vision that InstaDeep has to help showcase top talent from Africa working together with amazing people from abroad,” said Pretorius. InstaDeep anticipates its Cape Town team will “grow rapidly” and create exciting job opportunities for talented engineers in the continent. At the time of publication, the firm had an open listing for a research intern in deep reinforcement learning for the Cape Town office. ai

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4IR INCUBATOR

Success Stories 4th Industrial Revolution Incubator is an enabling platform for SMME’s that advance technical solutions that are impactful. Most recently 4IR Incubator has been focusing on operationalising agreements that emanate from the strategic partnerships entered into, and has been working on closing off all potential partnerships for the future. 4IR Incubator has also been working on strengthening relationships with two big corporations, so that SMES can plug into the value stream of the corporations and of that particular industry.

Here are some of the recent success stories from some of 4IR Incubator’s best SMMEs.

THRIFT ONLINE

1ST QUARTER 2020

WE ARE A Joburg based Social-Commerce start-up that’s developed the most affordable way for South Africans, particularly tertiary students to save money on their grocery spend and finally be free of food insecurity.

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What we do • We aggregate demand for student groceries on a central platform • Identifying products in one student’s grocery cart and match them with the same products in multiple carts to form bulk purchases. (crowd buying) • Increase average grocery basket size as cost savings offset onto the customer afford them more products in their baskets. • We create a perpetual price influence factor allowing the user to influence friends and family through sharing baskets which equates to higher purchase volumes and higher leverage over price. Through a uniquely build machine learning AI that analyses and matches student purchasing decisions of groceries and fast movable consumable goods and based on synonymous product matching we are able to convert and group one student grocery demands into one mega bulk purchase directly with wholesalers and FMCG corporations. Cutting out the stages in the supply chain, cutting out markup costs related to retail pricing and placing students in the earlier stages of the value chain. We believe that Thrift is well poised to relieve the threat of food insecurity in institutions of higher learning through leveraging shared

value and multiplying their buying power. Thrift was conceived on the 17 April 2019 off the back of the personal experience of Its two founders Thabiso and Modise Mongane who both had to confront the challenges of never having enough food provisions on the limited money their mother could afford to send to them through university. Navigating month to month trying to balance being effective in your studies and the pressures of having food eventually lead to the eldest of the two having to abandon his studies to go out and find work to relieve their single mom. You see this is not a unique story nor is it a special one. It is the story of millions of students in institutions of higher learning. In fact, this story is the sum of the realities of most working class families in this country. Since its inception Thrift has since been selected into the top 15 of the Diageo Social Tech Challenge and was launched at the Social-Tech Challenge official launch in November 2019 at Diageo’s JHB headquarters. Our most recent achievement has been our selection into the FNB Social-Impact lab’s top 25 SMME’s. Our newly established partnership with the 4iri as an implementation partner has steered us well on our way to commercialising Thrift as a new disruptor in the world market. This is what led the two Founders on a quest to alter this narrative and transcend a new World Order of access in the shared value economy. Let’s Face it, the new economy is a shared value economy. Continued on page 48

4IR Incubator Success Stories Continued from page 46

THUSONG TECHNOLOGIES

1ST QUARTER 2020

Thusong Technologies (Pty) Ltd was established in 2013 on the 1st of October by Kwaza Makhosonke and has been registered as a private company under Companies Intellectual Property Commission. The Enterprise has been developing educational interactive exhibits for science and training centres for the past 7 years and purchased 2 set of 3D printing machinery during 2016 and has been attending Expos like Sasol TechnoX, National science week, Career week and more, with

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Sasol, department of science and technology (DST) and Department of Education (DE) using 3D printing technology for science awareness and has previously conducted 3D printing services for various major companies. Below are interactive educational exhibits which were developed using PVC pipes, wood, electrical and mechanical components. The products were developed before the enterprise possessed 3D printing machines.

4IR Incubator Success Stories Continued from page 48

1ST QUARTER 2020

Thusong Technologies (Pty) Ltd purchased 3D printing machinery during the month of September in 2016 and has managed to provide 3D printing services for big Corporates with precision and better quality. See diagrams below. Thusong Technologies has also previously attended various exhibitions and expos for show casing 3D printing technology.

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Intervention with 4IRI The Enterprise started the incubation programme under 4th Industrial Revolution Incubator few months earlier and the first project being the designing of a smart interactive table which can be used in boardroom environment for collaboration on projects for a company called Innovative Telecommunications. Thusong Technologies has been appointed as a company which will conduct all assembling processes of the Interactive tables. The Incubator currently finances Thusong Technologies by providing market access in order to generate revenue for sustainability and also provides technical support and operations facilities. The project has so far been a success and plans are been strategized for mass production of the product. On the 2nd of September 2019, Thusong Technologies will be attending the Augmented Reality (AR) expo at Cape Town with the 4th Industrial Incubator and Innovative Telecommunications for

show casing the smart interactive table and also show casing services regarding the applications of 3D printing in the automotive industry. The Incubator has initiated a patent application for the product and is expected to generate revenue before the end of this current year (2019). ai

IMPLICATIONS OF

Automated Facial

Recognition for Africa Automated Facial Recognition (AFR) could be the greatest breakthrough for law enforcement and public safety since DNA or fingerprints. It ought to be out there now, watching over us like a silent sentinel while we all sleep safer in our beds. Instead, variable performance issues and illiberal applications have mired this promising tech in toxic controversy, leading to bans in certain US cities and a proposal for a 5-year ban in the EU. What are the implications for Africa? by Andrew Quixley

”

1ST QUARTER 2020

“

AFR could be a ‘force-multiplier‘ for police and security services in Africa, where policing levels are typically below the UN’s recommended ratio of 1 officer per 220 citizens

sexist and racist tendencies. In the following month, South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported that AFR was being used in Shenzhen to identify impatient pedestrians who cross the street before the robots change. By African standards, jaywalking seems hardly the kind of a heinous crime that might justify the use of mass surveillance technology.

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Where did it all go wrong? In February 2018, researchers from MIT and Stanford University published their findings after testing some of the leading commercial AFR services. Their study found that AFR performed much less well for darker skin tones and for females, fuelling damaging speculation that AFR was afflicted by human cognitive bias and exhibiting

Nor are truancy or teenage daydreaming in the classroom––a story the SCMP ran two months later about a school in Hangzhou. Doubtless AFR is also used to fight serious crime in China, but its application to seemingly trivial transgressions only served to feed the narrative that AFR could create too much power and control, and become a main armament for a police state. In the two years since these stories first broke, neither the racial bias narrative nor the surveillance state/civil rights narrative has gone away. Indeed both have been amplified by subsequent events.

1ST QUARTER 2020

AFR and civil rights In May 2019, San Francisco––a wonderful city with many similarities to Cape Town and known for its liberal and inclusive culture––became the first US city to ban the use of AFR by police and government agencies over concerns for democratic freedoms. Other US cities followed. London’s Met Police announced in January 2020 that they will deploy AFR operationally for the first time, against a backdrop of rising resistance from privacy campaigners and the social media backlash over the Kings Cross Estate scandal of August 2019, despite the fact that Londoners have experienced literally hundreds of terror incidents dating all the way back to the foiled Gunpowder Plot of 1605.

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How much does AFR affect our privacy? I’m old enough to remember when the world was offline and people could enjoy anonymity or disappear for a while, even in a crowd. In today’s world that’s a scarce luxury. Now each of us leaves a ‘digital wake’ as we pass through our daily lives, constantly exposing our identity and location with mobile devices and digital transactions. In a metropolitan or urban setting, we’re likely to pass in front of a camera lens so often that we don’t even notice anymore. Any of the images captured by all those CCTV cameras could be used to identify us, but we don’t get too exercised about it because it’s normal. How much difference would it make to add AFR to CCTV? The main difference is that the AFR algorithm would attempt to identify the faces in real time, which means security services have more time to act on the information. With AFR in the hands of a constitutional democracy or a benevolent regime, a law-abiding citizen should experience literally no difference to daily life. AFR and African faces In December 2019, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)––an organ of the US Department of Commerce––published its Face Recognition Vendor Test (FRVT) Part 3: Demographic Effects. The study compares 189 AFR algorithms from 99 developers, for faces from 24 different countries. The findings reveal wide variance in performance from different algorithms

for different demographic groups. West African and East African people were among the groups triggering the highest false positive rates. The results reinforce the findings of the MIT/Stanford research and earlier work, and although AFR algorithms have improved since 2018, the showstopping concern remains––AFR is not making the same level of errors for different demographic groups. Specifically, the darker a person’s face, the higher the likelihood that the AFR output will be wrong. Work to close this performance gap is underway. In December, the UK’s Financial Times reported that Chinese company ZTE is using a database of Zimbabwean faces to train AFR, aiming to make their algorithm viable for African markets. While that appears beneficial for Africa, the involvement of ZTE and other Chinese companies in creating algorithms for African use, and driving the creation of global standards for AFR via the International Telecommunications Union(ITU), does raise concerns that China could dominate this space, with less attention paid to human rights than African or Western cultures would require. Will AFR ever be perfect? Getting AFR to be equally effective with any skin tone will still mean that it falls short of perfect. The question is, how near to perfection does AFR have to get before it gains widespread acceptance? The answer will vary for different uses. For example, if you want AFR to search your family photos and pull out that picture of Thando and Suzie at the school open day, then perfection is not necessary and occasional errors are tolerable, if inconvenient. On the other hand, if AFR is being used as the primary source of evidence in a murder trial and the accused faces the death penalty if convicted, then perfection is the minimum standard the defence team would want. Paradoxically, if we compare AFR to other more established technical methods that are used for law enforcement, we find that they are far from infallible, even though their acceptance is already widespread. Fingerprint evidence––used to convict for more than a century––has been called into question by studies including a 2017 report from the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Even DNA evidence––long considered the gold standard in criminal justice––is susceptible to errors in the process and to misinterpretation of results, according to a study from the Centre for the Forensic Sciences at University College London. The paradox of the double standard required for acceptance of AI-powered AFR solutions is not unique. Similar situations are playing out for AI in autonomous vehicles and military hardware––domains in which we’ve tacitly accepted very high ‘error rates’ from humans for decades, but now expect AI to be perfect.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/ metro/2019/06/27/somerville-citycouncil-passes-facial-recognition-ban/ SfaqQ7mG3DGulXonBHSCYK/story.html https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/zmpaex/ oakland-becomes-third-us-city-to-ban-facialrecognition-xz https://www.bbc.com/news/ technology-51148501 http://news.mit.edu/2018/study-findsgender-skin-type-bias-artificial-intelligencesystems-0212 https://www.scmp.com/tech/china-tech/ article/2138960/jaywalkers-under-surveillanceshenzhen-soon-be-punished-text https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/ article/2146387/pay-attention-back-chineseschool-installs-facial-recognition https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-51237665 https://www.bbc.com/news/ technology-49586582 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_terrorist_ incidents_in_London https://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/ir/2019/NIST. IR.8280.pdf https://www.ft.com/content/c3555a3c-0d3e11ea-b2d6-9bf4d1957a67 https://www.aaas.org/news/fingerprint-sourceidentity-lacks-scientific-basis-legal-certainty

https://businesstech.co.za/news/ government/325093/the-number-of-policeofficers-vs-security-guards-in-south-africa/

1ST QUARTER 2020

Summing up Central to all the questions around AFR will be its standard of performance and the uses to which it’s applied. AFR needs globally accepted technical performance standards of the sort we’re accustomed to seeing from The International Organization for Standardization(ISO). AFR also needs tight regulation over its use and the use of the data collected, and such regulations would need to vary in different jurisdictions to reflect not only the existing constitutional and legal frameworks but also what different cultures consider acceptable. For example, the use of AFR in the EU will have to fit in with the GDPR, assuming EU rejects the current proposal to ban AFR. Africa should take the initiative for itself, to avoid the imposition of unsuitable frameworks developed out of Africa. The Chair of the African Union (AU) for 2020, South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa has already highlighted the importance of AI and the Fourth Industrial Revolution for Africa in his AU acceptance speech. The question of how to integrate the effective use of AFR to the overall benefit of Africa and Africans––without prejudice to the young democracies and human rights on this continent––will be one for his tenure at the AU. In the long run, the potential value of AFR for Africa is so compelling that it will be worth the rivers we must cross to make it happen. ai

SOURCES: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/14/us/facialrecognition-ban-san-francisco.html

https://en.unesco.org/courier/januarymarch-2018/african-brain-drain-therealternative

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/ oct/02/dna-in-the-dock-how-flawed-techniquessend-innocent-people-to-prison

https://www.alliance87.org/2017ge/ modernslavery#!section=2 https://www.ilo.org/global/topics/sdg-2030/ goal-8/target-8-7/lang--en/index.htm

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What could AFR mean for Africa? AFR could be a ‘force-multiplier‘ for police and security services in Africa, where policing levels are typically below the UN’s recommended ratio of 1 officer per 220 citizens. (South Africa had one officer per 383 citizens in June 2019). Using AFR could free officers from the immensely time-consuming tasks of watching live monitors or reviewing video footage, liberating time that could be more valuably spent out of the station on high-visibility duties, deterring criminality and building stronger communities. Tangible improvements in serious crime detection or prevention, particularly in Central Business Districts and metropolitan areas, directly improve the quality of life for citizens, but will also bring economic benefits. Boosting the capability of limited policing resources on the continent could enable governments to redirect budgets for spending in other areas of critical need, such as education, healthcare and infrastructure. Beyond that, sustained lower crime rates could raise economic confidence, leading to better capital inflows, lower borrowing rates, more tourism and less African brain drain––a phenomenon that ‘takes a large toll on a region whose human capital is already scarce’ according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). AFR’s potential applications go beyond trapping the guilty––AFR is also a potent weapon for finding the innocent. According to the International Labour Organisation (ILO), an estimated 24.9 million people are trapped in ‘modern slavery’, including women and girls forced into the sex trade and children forced into soldiery in armed conflicts. Africa suffers the highest rate of modern slavery, with 76 victims for every 10,000 citizens. The issues are exacerbated by undocumented migrants, moving in the hope of better economic prospects or fleeing armed conflict, political oppression, poverty and famine.

GIRLS IN TECH

Launches SA Chapter 1ST QUARTER 2020

Sawubona Girls in Tech! We see you

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“I SEE you!”, a greeting unique to South Africa. Much more personal than hello, and appropriate for the announcement of the launch of the South African chapter of Girls in Tech. Girls in Tech (GIT) is a social outreach organisation founded in San Francisco in 2007 by Adriana Gascoigne. The rapid global growth of the organisation proves that the founding vision to “Empower, Educate and Engage” women in the tech industry is still, if not more relevant today than it was 13 years ago. This San Francisco-based non-profit organisation now has over 40 chapters in over 30 countries, with our very own South African Chapter due to launch in Cape Town this April. Marius Botha, the founding MD of GIT South Africa (SA), has been working diligently for the last four months to build a committed advisory board to launch the South African chapter. Botha is a coach and technologist responsible for driving intelligent automation for local retail giant TFG.

“What attracted me to GIT is the alignment with my personal vision to empower people, solve problems and design solutions. Basically, anything that makes people’s lives better,” he says. Similarly, Anushka Soma-Patel – the co-MD for GIT in Cape Town – believes that the existing global network and vision of GIT connects with her core purpose of “fairness and equality”. Soma-Patel is a lead for awareness, training and innovation in Information Security, Information Technology and Business Resilience at Old Mutual. Responsible for introducing 500 youth to Information Technology and Information Security whilst at Old Mutual, she’s perfectly placed to help GIT South Africa build a legacy of accessibility and inclusion. “It is imperative that we create a future in technology that is inclusive and encompasses gender equality as many young girls today are surprised when they find out that they have a future in technology. “In order to ensure inclusion, GIT initiatives will

1ST QUARTER 2020

The book, which was funded through crowdfunding site Kickstarter broke the website’s records for fundraising for a literature publication. It’s the literary tech story equivalent of pop star Billie Eilish’s musical success! It’s easy to see where Botha’s enthusiasm and passion for GIT SA is coming from. Her son is growing up in a world where anything is possible thanks to technology. The challenge with an “all things are possible” scenario, is that it can be difficult to know where to start, so GIT SA have decided to start their journey by building a repository of personal stories that aim to inspire or encourage young learners to follow a career in the technology sector. If you have a story to share, please email southafrica@girlsintech.org. Your story could change a young girls’ life. As a not for profit organisation GIT SA know that the right partners are going to be essential to have a sustainable impact. If the founding vision to “Empower, Educate and Engage” resonates with you please connect with them on Facebook or LinkedIn or email directly: southafrica@girlsintech.org To quote GIT founder, Adriana Cascoigne “Gender and diversity imbalances will impact your ability to connect with and serve your customers.” In an increasingly digital world, getting girls into tech is essential. ai

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ensure at least a 50% inclusion of females in all initiatives,”she says. Two key themes that GIT South Africa is committed to as they get ready to launch the local chapter are Access and Involvement. “How do we provide access to content, knowledge sharing and role models and then how do we create opportunities for involvement, meeting you exactly where you are in your personal journey? These questions will hold us accountable as an advisory board”, says Monique Gibson, partnership director for GIT SA. “As we serve the industry by facilitating networking events, hackathons, mentorships and bootcamps – just to name a few of the events in the pipeline – and will hopefully keep us relevant, regardless of whether you’re engaging with us as a Grade 7 learner, starting to consider technology as a subject choice or a senior software engineer wanting to build a global network for freelance work opportunities,” adds Gibson. Manette Botha, events director for GIT SA, says the organisation’s focus for now is on its launch event which is inspired by Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls, a series that she says loves reading to her son. “It’s an inspiring collection of stories aimed at ages six and up and introduces us to 100 remarkable women and their extraordinary lives and is illustrated by 60 artists from around the world.”

AFRICAN STARTUPS DataProphet, InstaDeep make US research firm CB Insights earlier this month named South Africa’s DataProphet and Tunisia’s InstaDeep in its 2020 AI 100 list.

1ST QUARTER 2020

NOW IN its fourth year, the list is an annual ranking of the 100 most promising artificial intelligence (AI) startups in the world. This year’s list includes startups from 13 countries which the research firm says are pushing the boundaries of AI research and commercial

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adoption across 15 industries and a broad range of cross-industry applications. CB Insights said in a statement on 3 March that its research team picked the 100 from nearly 5000 startups based on several factors including patent

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activity, business relations, investor profile, news sentiment analysis, proprietary Mosaic scores, market potential, competitive landscape, team strength and tech novelty. Cape Town based DataProphet enables manufacturers to step towards autonomous manufacturing. The firm uses advanced machine learning to improve quality and yield in manufacturing. DataProphet’s AI solution suite, DataProphet PRESCRIBE, is an Expert Execution System (EES), enabled by AI. DataProphet continuously monitors and prescribes optimal changes to the control parameters of a manufacturing plant to pre-emptively avoid any quality failures in the course of production. The startup explains that this task is beyond the capability of human experts given the size of the data produced by manufacturing plants and the speed at which they work. Historically the analysis of this data has only been done after a defect has occurred – DataProphet does it before, enabling manufacturers around the world to avoid the cost incurred in defects.

DataProphet has proven to reduce defects by 40% on average. The startup was founded in 2014 by Daniel Schwartzkopff and CEO Frans Cronje. Commenting in a statement on the firm’s website, Cronje said the firm is “delighted” to be recognised by CB Insights as one of the most promising AI companies in the world, with only four AI companies in the manufacturing sector selected. “We’re committed to helping manufacturers achieve their Industry 4.0 goals and build a solid foundation for autonomous manufacturing,” he added. London-based InstaDeep was founded in Tunisia in 2014 by CEO Karim Beguir and chief digital and visualisation officer Zohra Slim. InstaDeep uses its expertise in GPU-accelerated computing, deep learning and reinforcement learning to develop solutions for the electronic design, logistics, mobility and energy verticals. Last year InstaDeep, which recently opened its sixth office in Cape Town, secured a partnership with AI computing leader NVIDIA and tenders with Deutsche Bahn. ai

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FinChatBot’s CEO Antoine Paillusseau at AI Expo Africa 2019 (Click to Watch YouTube Interview)

So you want a chatbot…

1ST QUARTER 2020

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Costs and ROI Incorporating an AI chatbot into a business does not come cheap. Initial set up costs can range from R50 000 to as much as R350 000, while rental of the software can set back a business from about R15 000 a month depending on the level of integration, agents and channels required. As such most businesses will want to know how the return on investment (ROI) can be calculated. Argyros says ROI and key performance indicators (KPIs) vary from client to client. “With some clients it’s the rate of response that needed improvement with speed and efficiency being the measures of success. Another measure is the rate of conversion in terms of online and social commerce sales,” he explains. McLeod says in order to quantify ROI, you first need to identify what the function of the chatbot is. For example, in instances where the bot is primarily designed to be a sales bot, the ROI is based on sales. Likewise, if the chatbot is designed to service inbound customer requests the ROI will take the cost per agent into consideration. Things can go wrong As with any technology, chatbots are not without their problems, especially when not implemented well. Thompson says with chatbots, the biggest problem is almost always around a lack of training. He points out that there are two important phases when building a chatbot. “The initial phase is when starting to build the bot, the second is refining it once there is more user data. In the build phase, the scope of the bot needs to be considered. “If there isn’t a clear goal, then the bot has huge potential to be a gimmick which ends up frustrating users instead of helping them,” he adds. “An example was a bot deployed on Twitter in 2016, it was shut down within 24 hours - 16 exactly- because

it’s training model was almost entirely autonomous, and allowed unvalidated human input. “Many chatbots today still require a huge amount of human training in the build phase, and then again in the post launch, where the bot is refined once there’s additional training data,” says Thompson. But, as MacLeod explains, over complicating the chatbot logic and training can also have a negative impact. “Many chatbots are built around a specific language and if you are having to cater for multiple languages it presents an administrative challenge,” he adds. Personalisation is the new gold Businesses that get their chatbots right stand to gain an edge over their competition. Chatbots, Paillusseau explains, have the ability to personalise interactions and connect with audiences in their native language which he says garners greater understanding and trust from customers, especially given South Africa’s cultural diversity. “In marketing, personalisation is the new gold, and companies can achieve an increase of up to 80% in engagement rates,” says Paillusseau. Chatbots are also convenient and cost-effective as customers won’t need to download a separate app to engage with businesses. He adds that when human involvement in customer interactions is reduced, productivity, quality and speed improve. “Furthermore, conversational interfaces also provide an easy and economical way for businesses to receive customer feedback,” he says. He however cautions that despite the enormous potential of AI chatbots, there will always be need for “a human touch” when it comes to interactions with customers. “This means an ability to ensure seamless agent handover and other integrations for the best customer experience,” says Paillusseau. ai

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So you want a CHATBOT…

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