AI, Journalism, and the Ubuntu Robot in Africa: A quest for a normative framework

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.

Recorded Presentation | 26 April 2023

#Journalism #Ubuntu #JournalistsAndCommunicators