This text is sponsored by UN ECA
That is the view of James Manyika, Senior Vice-President for Analysis, Know-how and Society at Google delivering the 2024 Adebayo Adedeji Memorial Lecture at CoM2024.
Manyika, who can be the co-chair of the UN Excessive Degree Advisory Physique on Synthetic Intelligence, mentioned AI would have essentially the most affect in “helping folks, powering the economic system and increasing prosperity, accelerating scientific breakthroughs and serving to to deal with societal challenges, enabling improvement”.
He famous, nevertheless, that these features wouldn’t accrue robotically and would require funding, innovation, diffusion and an enabling coverage agenda.
Already, Manyika mentioned, AI helps to enhance lives by means of advances in scientific analysis and discovery.
Amongst different makes use of, these developments are serving to professionals to fund cures for illnesses quicker, discovering minerals that may energy next-generation know-how and enabling quicker predictions of pure disasters.
Some African nations have already deployed AI capabilities to enhance lives. “In Kenya, AI fashions are being trialled that make ultrasounds extra accessible to evenly skilled ultrasound operators in under-resourced settings.
“In South Africa, AI-powered screenings are serving to to catch tuberculosis early, decreasing its unfold,” he famous.
Regardless of these benefits, Manyika mentioned there are potential drawbacks and complexities, together with issues in regards to the affect it would have on jobs.
Whereas most analysis signifies that extra jobs, together with new varieties of employment, may very well be created by AI, Manyinka mentioned its advantages may very well be diminished if it led to job losses and affected staff have been unable to seek out
new jobs on account of their lack of related expertise.
“Tackling these problems with workforce readiness, skilling and supporting employee transitions will probably be important,” he emphasised, including that Google is concerned in initiatives to offer licensed coaching programmes for hundreds of Africans.
This, he mentioned, will probably be particularly important for Africa, given the scale of its younger inhabitants who should cope with AI-related shifts over the course of their working lives.
Supply: african.business
