Panel 4: African AI
26 April | 2.00 pm | Chair: Tonii Leach | Venue: Frankopan Hall
Presentation 1: Artificial Intelligence, Data Capitalism, and Bioethics in Sub-Sahara Africa
Presenter: Golden Lwando Mwinsa, Professor Benjamin Ferguson and Professor Frances Griffiths
Abstract: There has been an increase in the digitalisation of healthcare data in Sub-Sahara Africa because of its potential to improve the health outcomes of the people. This includes individual’s clinical records (symptoms, diagnoses, test results), image data such as photographs and X-rays and self-monitoring data (exercise, heart rate). Where there is large volume digital data, there is potential for the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI). In this article we focus on non-knowledge-based AI such as data mining. Often little attention is given to how the collection, collation, usage, ownership, and control of digital health data fits with local ethical systems. This paper seeks to explore the application of Ubuntu ethics to digital data in Sub-Sahara Africa’s healthcare system. Ubuntu is an ancient ethical system practiced across Sub-Sahara Africa by the Bantu speaking people, and it is best explained by the Nguni proverb, “Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu”, translated as “a person is a person through other persons”. Ubuntu ethics put the community and the social good before an individual and does not regard an individual as an autonomous private being. Consequently, the individual has little latitude for self-determination outside the context of the community. Fundamentally, Ubuntu is not opposed to personal data sharing as it does not believe that an individual is a private being. However, it is on condition that collected data brings about social good for the community. In western cultures, the collection of electronic data raises serious ethical challenges about patient privacy, autonomy, consent, and confidentiality. In this paper, using the example of a specific health issue, we will consider the challenges in relation to electronic health data within the Ubuntu ethic. Who is the community? What is a community benefit? Who decides?
Author bios: Golden Lwando Mwinsa is Chevening and Commonwealth Scholar studying for a PhD in bioethics at the University Warwick, in the Social Science and Systems in Health Unit (SSSU), Division of Health Sciences, Warwick Medical School. He is a Public Health and Social Development Professional with 13 years practical experience in Zambia and Sierra Leone.
Frances Griffiths is Professor of Medicine in Society at University of Warwick, South Africa Chairs Initiative Professor of South Africa Research Chairs Initiative Award Holder, Centre for Health Policy, University of the Witwatersrand, Fellow of the Alan Turning Institute and co-chair of the Institute’s Data Ethics Group. As a social scientist she specialises in research on social, health, health service and health policy implications of innovation in health care including the use of digital communication. She is an experienced general medical practitioner (GP) currently working as a GP in Coventry, UK.
Benjamin Ferguson is Professor of Philosophy and Director of PPE at the University of Warwick, United Kingdom, and member of the Warwick International Higher Education Academy, among other memberships. He has published widely in peer-reviewed journals and has co-authored several books. His research interests include exploitation, consumer choices, labour, trade justice, migration, and human rights. He has also presented at several international conferences.
Presentation 2: Responsible AI, Journalism, and the Ubuntu Robot in Africa: A quest for a normative framework
Presenter: Greg Gondwe
Abstract: The notion of how Artificial Intelligence (AI) can be used for the greater good has continued to elude scholars. While some focus on how AI would change the world for the better, others hanker on the idea that AI is built on a framework that impedes equality and perpetuates biases. The debates have led to a chasm between the content creators and the users. As a result, a number of calls for a normative framework have emerged to understand the symbiotic relationship. This study, therefore, investigates the Ubuntu framework as one of the proposed typologies for understanding AI. Drawing from interviews conducted among 43 journalists in five sub-Saharan African countries, the study examined the Ubuntu framework in the context of the core critiques of AI: 1. exclusion of marginalized communities in the design of automated decision-making systems, 2. biases in data selection, 3. failure to recognize societal interconnectedness, 4. commodification of digital selves, and 5. data centralization. Essentially, we interrogate how each of the core critiques shapes the collection, production, and dissemination of news content in Sub-Sahara Africa. We employ both mathematical and theoretical insights to underscore the process of news production and thus argue for Ubuntu as a universal framework.
Author bio: Greg Gondwe, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Journalism at California State University - San Bernardino, and A Visiting Scholar with the Institute for Social Media Rebooting at Harvard.
Presentation 3: African World of AI: A people-centered approach to responsible AI
Presenter: Makouchi Sam Nkwo, Annastasia Shipepe, Shaimaa Lazem, and Anicia Peters
Abstract: Globally, AI stakeholders have continued to engage with contemporary discussions on values such as ethics, transparency, explainability, data integrity, fairness, and governance, which are germane to responsible AI discourse. Many guidelines and policy frameworks have been recommended and are being adopted in this direction. In Africa however, awareness of these policies is at their early stages despite increasing activities in AI R&D on the continent. Conflicts in cultural values, digital divide, and age-long inequalities perpetuated through non-involvement of local AI stakeholders in developing these frameworks have impacted its acceptance on the continent (Gwagwa et al., 2021). But one-size-does-not-fitall. The wholesale adoption of AI solutions developed without the consideration of afrocentric perspectives could aggravate its potential negative impacts on users, communities, and environment. Ethical and responsible products need to be seen as inherently related to the local context. There is a need for a new approach that allows local designers to develop sociallyresponsible frameworks instead of depending on existing models that don’t align with communities’ values. This approach will promote responsible AI by allowing startups to collect sentiments of their technology ideas from peoples’ perspectives– how it might affect users in the communities. Through public engagement starting with startups in Africa and Namibia’s AI ecosystem, we attempt to uncover how startups and designers interpret users’ opinions, map them to relevant principles and guidelines for responsible AI, and how they tailor them in practice. The results will support AI-startups to harness local and situated design ideas. The results will further translate and integrate them into existing AI frameworks. It will be invaluable in building AI capacity that addresses contextual issues of ethics, equity, and inclusion especially as it affects the cherished values of marginalized communities. It is expected to contribute to creating AI-solutions that are unique and appropriate for the African market.
Author bios: Dr. Makuochi Samuel Nkwo is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow, in the Research Innovation and Development Unit, University of Namibia, Windhoek. He has done high-quality and impactful single and collaborative research works in health & wellness, teaching & learning, eCommerce & workplaces, as well as in sustainable environments. Also, he has authored and co-authored, published, and presented over 26 peer-reviewed papers in reputable journals and conferences around the world. He is currently leading the Responsible Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence Design in Africa project, hosted at the University of Namibia, Windhoek.
Annastasia Shipepe is a Lecturer at the Department of Computing, Mathematical & Statistical Sciences at University of Namibia.
Prof Anicia Peters is the Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research, Innovation and Development at University of Namibia, also the Chairperson of the Namibia Presidential Task Force on the Fourth Industrial Revolution. She serves as ACM CHI 2023 Technical Program Co-chair (Hamburg, April 2023).
Dr Shaima Lazem is an Associate Research professor at City of Scientific Research and Technological Applications SRTA-City, Egypt, and Co-founder of ArabHCI. She demonstrated leadership skills in 2017 UK-Egypt Newton-Mosharafa funded project “The Hilali Network: Exploring Lived Cultural Heritage Through Design in Higher Education” in partnership with Kingston University, UK. She was awarded the Leaders in Innovation Fellowship with the Royal Academy of Engineering in London in 2018 and prestigious Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing scholarship in 2011&2016.