ATF 2024: Regulate AI use cases, not technology – Google's Charles Murito

Google's regional director for sub-Saharan Africa for government affairs and public policy, Charles Murito, told Africa Tech Festival 2024 that African governments needed to regulate the use cases of artificial intelligence (AI) instead of regulating the technology.

Murito made this point during a keynote panel discussion, "Strengthening Connectivity for the AI Era," at the 27th annual at Africa Tech Festival held in Cape Town this week.

"We need to think about AI not as a technology that needs to be regulated. AI is a general-purpose technology, akin to what electricity was a 100-plus years ago," he said. 

"What we need to regulate is not the technology itself, but the use cases of that technology," he explained.

He added that AI will help in different industries, and it is at the industry level that regulation needs to happen, rather than at the technological level.

Panelists at Africa Tech Festival 2024 called for African governments not to regulate AI as a technology, but rather its use cases. (Source: Image by DC Studio on Freepik)

"Health is also critical and AI will have a massive impact, because in Kenya alone, around 7,000 women die because of pregnancy complications, AI can help that as you can use lower cost devices to deliver ultrasound intelligence to see what the pregnancy progress is," he elaborated.

"So again, it is critical to regulate it at that level, and not at the level of the technology itself," he went on.

Related:Google to invest $5.8M in African AI training

AI adoption at an early stage in Africa

Standard Bank's global head of telecoms, media and technology, client coverage, corporate and investment banking, Nina Triantis, said that AI adoption in Africa is still at an early stage.

"This is in terms of use cases as well as the use of AI to propel Africa's growth. Currently, Africa accounts for less than 1% of global language models and machine learnings, so we are at a very early stage, and it is the most demanding platform shift in terms of what is required to support AI use cases," she explained.

Triantis added that connectivity is very important but that in certain areas in Africa the connectivity deficit is still very large.

She said that even though there has been vast investment in in subsea cables, more inland connectivity and cross border connectivity is needed on the continent.

"Africa requires an enabling environment to support infrastructure build and infrastructure sharing," she said.

Collaboration will fast track AI adoption

Meta Platforms' technologies director of public policy for Francophone Africa and director of connectivity and innovation policy for Africa, Fargani Tambeayuk, said connectivity is the foundation of digital transformation.

"Ensuring that Africans have economic opportunities to grow and improve their lives is important," he said.

Related:Fake news, AI misuse are top concerns for African youth – Ichikowitz Foundation

He added that international companies want to invest but there are many roadblocks. Governments across the continent need to have enabling policies and regulatory frameworks to remove those roadblocks, he said, thus fast-tracking connectivity and in turn AI adoption.

"Open up the segment, as that will encourage competition, which in turn will drive a lot of investment on the continent," he said.