[Music]
a few weeks ago I was in Ghana at the
Africa Science Academy a cool a school I
created there for girls to study science
and technology we collect girls from
across Africa the brightest we can find
and we do serious science and maths
together and I sat down with them and I
said to them let’s have a conversation
about what I think is the emerging
technology that is going to have the
most profound impact on Africa over the
next 20 years and I said to them we need
to talk about artificial intelligence AI
that is the most important thing that is
going to hit our continent we are at the
start of a wave of AI a revolution in AI
and it will impact every industry across
Africa and across the world
it is absolutely profound and you know
the important thing at the heart of AI
are the algorithms that drive it that is
the most important thing because the
algorithms define the future and people
forget that algorithms are not just
technical they are political and
cultural let me give you a simple
example if you type the words beautiful
baby into Google the algorithms will
instantly in a fraction of a second give
you back what the algorithms have
decided a beautiful baby looks like this
is what a beautiful baby looks like a
beautiful baby does not look like you
and does not look like me it looks like
what the algorithms say it looks like
and you know why that is
I’ll tell you why because you and me
were not in the room when those
algorithms were defined
if we are going to be part of defining
the future of Africa because AI will
drive the future of every industry we
need to be defining the algorithms that
tell us what the future looks like
what does AI look like at the moment
what’s happening what’s really going on
we’ve come a long way from 20 years ago
when IBM deep blue computer beat the
world chess champion last year google’s
deepmind division released an AI called
alphago that beat the world’s go
champion go is a it’s a game so
complicated that apparently there are
more positions on a go board than there
are atoms in the universe the belief was
that this game is so complicated it will
take another 5 10 20 years before a I
can even play it to a competent level
last year alphago beat the world go
champion and this year a new version of
alphago called alphago zero beat that
last version a hundred games to nil this
is how fast AI is developing AI is
learning how to drive cars how to fly
planes how to diagnose diseases and this
is just going on and on sector after
sector AI is beginning to achieve
superhuman performance and this really
really matters it is incredibly
important so what does it mean for
Africa ai will touch every industry from
finance to farming we are on the start
of the fourth Industrial Revolution this
is real we are at the start of the
revolution the starting gun has been
fired and I’ll be very very honest with
you right now
Africa has not even lined up on the
start line we are sitting in the Lagos
Yacht Club
drinking crude oil from champagne
glasses patting ourselves on the back at
how clever we are meanwhile South Korea
has committed nearly a billion dollars
to its AI industry China has said it is
going to create an AI industry of a
hundred and fifty billion dollars over
the next 20 years
where is the pan-african billion dollar
investment in AI where are the thousands
of young people who are training to be
machine learning specialists data
scientists AI specialists this really
really matters the jobs that we love the
accounting jobs the legal jobs the
investment banking jobs all those jobs
will be swept away over the next twenty
to thirty years because AI can do it
faster cheaper better than you can all
those jobs will be lost in time like
tears in rain they will be gone it is
true so you need to understand how
important this is we’re here talking
about an African metamorphosis but what
are we changing to metamorphosis is
about profound change what are we
changing too we are at the start of the
fourth Industrial Revolution and the
beauty of that is that nobody knows how
it’s going to play out
no country anywhere in the world has an
inbuilt advantage it’s nothing to do
with the resources you have in the
ground it’s to do with what’s in your
head
therefore Africa can play at this game
just as well as any other country and if
we’re going is and if we’re going to do
that we have to start playing we have to
get on the pitch and we have to play so
we yes we need to transform we need to
transform to a new Africa we need to
transform to a smart Africa we need to
transform to an intelligent Africa
[Music]
a few weeks ago I was in Ghana at the
Africa Science Academy a cool a school I
created there for girls to study science
and technology we collect girls from
across Africa the brightest we can find
and we do serious science and maths
together and I sat down with them and I
said to them let’s have a conversation
about what I think is the emerging
technology that is going to have the
most profound impact on Africa over the
next 20 years and I said to them we need
to talk about artificial intelligence AI
that is the most important thing that is
going to hit our continent we are at the
start of a wave of AI a revolution in AI
and it will impact every industry across
Africa and across the world
it is absolutely profound and you know
the important thing at the heart of AI
are the algorithms that drive it that is
the most important thing because the
algorithms define the future and people
forget that algorithms are not just
technical they are political and
cultural let me give you a simple
example if you type the words beautiful
baby into Google the algorithms will
instantly in a fraction of a second give
you back what the algorithms have
decided a beautiful baby looks like this
is what a beautiful baby looks like a
beautiful baby does not look like you
and does not look like me it looks like
what the algorithms say it looks like
and you know why that is
I’ll tell you why because you and me
were not in the room when those
algorithms were defined
if we are going to be part of defining
the future of Africa because AI will
drive the future of every industry we
need to be defining the algorithms that
tell us what the future looks like
what does AI look like at the moment
what’s happening what’s really going on
we’ve come a long way from 20 years ago
when IBM deep blue computer beat the
world chess champion last year google’s
deepmind division released an AI called
alphago that beat the world’s go
champion go is a it’s a game so
complicated that apparently there are
more positions on a go board than there
are atoms in the universe the belief was
that this game is so complicated it will
take another 5 10 20 years before a I
can even play it to a competent level
last year alphago beat the world go
champion and this year a new version of
alphago called alphago zero beat that
last version a hundred games to nil this
is how fast AI is developing AI is
learning how to drive cars how to fly
planes how to diagnose diseases and this
is just going on and on sector after
sector AI is beginning to achieve
superhuman performance and this really
really matters it is incredibly
important so what does it mean for
Africa ai will touch every industry from
finance to farming we are on the start
of the fourth Industrial Revolution this
is real we are at the start of the
revolution the starting gun has been
fired and I’ll be very very honest with
you right now
Africa has not even lined up on the
start line we are sitting in the Lagos
Yacht Club
drinking crude oil from champagne
glasses patting ourselves on the back at
how clever we are meanwhile South Korea
has committed nearly a billion dollars
to its AI industry China has said it is
going to create an AI industry of a
hundred and fifty billion dollars over
the next 20 years
where is the pan-african billion dollar
investment in AI where are the thousands
of young people who are training to be
machine learning specialists data
scientists AI specialists this really
really matters the jobs that we love the
accounting jobs the legal jobs the
investment banking jobs all those jobs
will be swept away over the next twenty
to thirty years because AI can do it
faster cheaper better than you can all
those jobs will be lost in time like
tears in rain they will be gone it is
true so you need to understand how
important this is we’re here talking
about an African metamorphosis but what
are we changing to metamorphosis is
about profound change what are we
changing too we are at the start of the
fourth Industrial Revolution and the
beauty of that is that nobody knows how
it’s going to play out
no country anywhere in the world has an
inbuilt advantage it’s nothing to do
with the resources you have in the
ground it’s to do with what’s in your
head
therefore Africa can play at this game
just as well as any other country and if
we’re going is and if we’re going to do
that we have to start playing we have to
get on the pitch and we have to play so
we yes we need to transform we need to
transform to a new Africa we need to
transform to a smart Africa we need to
transform to an intelligent Africa
[Music]
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