Africa, Advanced Technology, and Security Panel Discussion

July 2019 No Comments

“Africa, Advanced Technology, and Security Panel Discussion“

Speakers: Arias, R. (USAFRICOM Joint Capability Technology Demonstration (JCTD) Science, Technology & Innovation Office J804); Beguir, K. (InstaDeep AI); Smart, A. (Google); Siminyu, K. (Artificial Intelligence for Development- Africa); Sutherlin, G. (National Defense University)

Date: 22 July 2019

Speaker Session Preview

SMA hosted a panel discussion as a part of its SMA AFRICOM Speaker Series. The panelists included Mr. Ricardo Arias (USAFRICOM Joint Capability Technology Demonstration (JCTD) Science, Technology & Innovation Office J804), Mr. Karim Beguir (InstaDeep AI), Mr. Andrew Smart (Google), and Ms. Kathleen Siminyu (Artificial Intelligence for Development- Africa). This panel discussion was moderated by Dr. Gwyneth Sutherlin (National Defense University).

Dr. Sutherlin began by stating the purpose of the panel discussion: to “look at the next decade of opportunity in advanced/emerging technology development to improve risk analysis for health, food security, governance, migration, and humanitarian crises in African countries.” Mr. Arias proceeded to discuss the science and technologies upon which AFRICOM has invested in order to help the UN conduct operations in Africa and to improve AFRICOM’s understanding of the operating environment. He also highlighted several areas for potential partnerships, particularly in the areas of telemedicine and counter unmanned aircraft systems (counter UAS). Next, Mr. Beguir spoke about companies’ (particularly InstaDeep AI’s) investment in human capital on the continent and highlighted the value of such investment. He stated that as hardware becomes cheaper, AI application becomes greater, and technology becomes stronger, Africa becomes more capable of participating in the AI revolution, and there are plenty of young, brilliant minds that are willing and able to contribute. Mr. Smart then discussed Google’s fairness program, which involves individuals from local African populations in the design and implementation of new technologies that will eventually be used on the continent. He also spoke about the biases inherent within data sets and stressed the importance of ensuring that technology is inclusive. Finally, Ms. Siminyu focused on language technologies, highlighting the value of improving different systems, such as deep learning systems, by programming them to recognize different languages. She also discussed the benefits and hindrances of having different countries rebuild foundational AI-based technologies (e.g., Indian researchers are considering building their own version of Alexa in order to remove English language biases; however, when considering a similar hypothetical initiative in Africa, not many countries would benefit from such a device due to connectivity issues and costliness).