Google Is Leveraging The Power Of Artificial Intelligence (AI) To Tackle Pressing Issues In Africa

Google, on Thursday, September 7, 2023,  hosted the Research @ Accra event at the company’s AI research lab in Accra to discuss the future of artificial intelligence in Africa and highlight the various advancements achieved in the areas of navigation, language, weather forecast, flood control, and food security on the continent.

Since opening the company’s research center in Accra in 2018, they have collaborated with global research teams to lead multiple sustainability initiatives of interest to Africa.

The event featured presentations and demos of Google’s works in Flood Forecasting, Project Relate, Maternal Health Ultrasound, and Open Buildings. Google said the center in Africa aims to push the boundaries of AI while solving pressing problems affecting millions of people locally and globally.

Africa is the most linguistically diverse continent, and Google believes there are big opportunities to explore the various African languages through AI. The company, through its Waxal system, is creating  Natural Language Processing (NLP) resources using crowdsourced speech and text data of diverse African languages and using it to research novel architectures and deep learning algorithms for multilingual NLP systems (Speech, NMT, Q&A, LM, etc.) that are robust to variations in accents, code-switching, and targeted at low-end mobile devices. They believe Waxal will make NLP systems more inclusive while advancing the state of the art in deep learning for NLP and machine learning under severe memory/computing constraints.

Mapping buildings in remote locations can be challenging, even in the presence of satellite imagery. As a result, planning infrastructure can be difficult when these buildings go unmapped.

To tackle the issue, the team at the Accra research center launched the Open Buildings dataset project, which combines AI with satellite imagery to pinpoint the location of buildings. This helps governments and non-profit organizations to understand the needs of residents and offer assistance.

The company’s executives also encourage regulators and policymakers on the continent not to focus on controlling AI but also to seek a better understanding of the technology to make policies that won’t chamber progress but encourage its development to ensure advancement in healthcare, education, and agriculture.

 

AmCham Ghana And U.S. Embassy Engage Stakeholders On AI Opportunities For Innovation

The American Chamber of Commerce, Ghana, and the U.S. Embassy in Ghana on Tuesday, April 4, 2023, jointly hosted the AI Forum on “Leveraging Artificial Intelligence for Innovation” at the Google AI Research Center in Accra.

The event focused on developments in industry, research, and policy related to artificial intelligence.

More than 40 local and international ICT companies, including AmCham Ghana member companies, startups, incubators, academic experts, industry representatives from agriculture, food processing, and manufacturing, as well as graduate students in computer science, NGOs, and civil society representatives, attended the event.

Officials from the Office of the President of Ghana and the National Data Commission were also in attendance.

“U.S. companies and organizations, like those represented here today, are at the forefront of this technology. The responsible use of these technologies has the potential to transform our economy and drive Ghana’s digital transformation,” said U.S. Ambassador Palmer.

The Ambassador highlighted AI tools being deployed around the world to enhance capacities and improve efficiencies in nearly all industry and social sectors, from health to transportation to agriculture and food security.

The United States Government is working to build partnerships connected by shared values and a shared commitment to the responsible use of AI.

Dr. Jason Hickey, Head of Google’s AI Research Center, highlighted Google’s research activities, many of which involve local researchers who are developing AI solutions for use within Ghana and the wider African continent.

Ludwika Alvarez, Digital Team Leader for AI at the U.S. Department of Commerce, provided an overview of fast-moving investment and expansion efforts in the AI industry in the United States.

Fatima Tajambang of the U.S. company Nvidia explained how the company is providing Ghanaian ICT communities with mentoring and computing resources so that aspiring local developers can build and scale their AI expertise, nurture emerging technologies and drive innovation.

Dr. Daphne Stavroula Zois from the University of Albany (New York) detailed her research on AI applications for use in Ghana’s agricultural sector.

Darlington Akogo from KaroAgroAI, which is partially funded by several American foundations, spoke about his active work using AI to diagnose plant diseases and provide solutions for Ghana’s farmers.

Dr. Peter Maher from Webster University in St. Louis, Missouri, highlighted how U.S. education is responding to the AI sector’s fast growth, including developing specialized curricula to train the researchers and workers who will work with the technology in a wide range of disciplines.

For more information on the United States National Artificial Intelligence Strategy, see www.ai.gov.

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