2024-10-22 22:05:00
On July 24, the African Union (AU) published the continent’s strategy on artificial intelligence. Training, access to data for supercomputers, protection of strategic and personal data… How can Africa achieve sovereignty?
Sovereignty starts with AI expertise and Tunisia is picking up the pace, underlines Hichem Turki. In the technopark he manages in Sousse, 500 students will be trained in the technologies of IT leader Nvidia this year, and 2,000 will be trained next year. “ We are preparing talent for AI, to be able to be creators of AI and not just consumers.underlines Hichem Turki. And, of course, we have invested in our supercomputers to be able to give our talents the ability to develop artificial intelligence. We will obviously have to develop more and more data centers for information sovereignty in the country. ».
Africa currently has 80 data centersout of approximately 5,000 worldwide. Some countries, such as Côte d’Ivoire, aim to increase them. Be careful though, warns Luc Missidimbazi, president of the Central African technology and innovation platform, Osiane: “ Until we solve the basic energy problems of data centers, it will cost us so much that the product will ultimately cost the user dearly. », he warns. Indeed, ” if you have a data center that costs up to forty times more than Europe, you will still be required to have your data abroad ».
Legislation not yet implemented in Africa
The emergency, according to this engineer, advisor to the prime minister Congo-Brazzavilleit is above all to protect African datawherever they are hosted. For him the problem is access to this data. “ This is where authentication and identification are key. This authentication passes through tools, through equipment, through technologies, through programs, through encryption. And it is precisely these reinforcements that we must understand, to have total management of our digital ecosystem. This is not the case in many African countries », he analyzes.
Protecting personal data is another challenge, acknowledges Meshia Cédric Oveneke, co-founder of the company Fit for Purpose, which has developed a facial recognition application in Kenya. “ In our company, in everything we develop, we always think about data protection. We do not save any photos and do not work with cloud-based backup technologies, because the infrastructure does not allow it. And so in our case the problem does not arise. Now everyone does it ? That’s another story… », explains Meshia Cedric Oveneke.
While most African states have adopted legislation for the protection of personal data, it is its implementation, according to experts, that is lagging behind, due to the lack of adequate training in all administrations.
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