The U.S. Department of State and Nigeria’s Ministry of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy, will from September 10 to 11, convene approximately 300 stakeholders in Lagos for the “Global Inclusivity and Artificial Intelligence: Africa” conference.
During this pan-African conference, senior U.S. government officials will join tech policy leaders, private sector executives, civil society members, and academia to discuss opportunities and challenges in the development, deployment, and use of artificial intelligence (AI).
Recall that Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems that are able to learn and reason like humans are now widely used in a large number of real-world applications. Their performance has dramatically increased the degree to which we are able to address previously inaccessible tasks. However, the debate around such systems is now pivoting towards their non-functional properties and their impact on society as a whole.
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In this Special Issue, there will be several discussions that would trigger the discussion about a more sustainable AI developmental framework that encompasses a set of principles at the crossroads of AI, Ethics, Philosophy, and Sociology.
The is because as the range of AI capabilities expands, so does our awareness of the ethical issues related to the design, development, deployment, and use of AI systems or their application for the social good.
The promise for positive change that AI represents has been challenged by several reports on ethically questionable uses of AI in contexts as varied as healthcare, education, law enforcement, recruitment, risk assessment, and more.
The conference will include plenary and break-out sessions, site visits, panel discussions, and networking events that will help participants identify and harmonisetech governance strategies that ensure AI is adopted and advanced in a way that protects the public from potential harm and that ensures everyone is able to enjoy its benefits.
This conference represents a significant step in U.S.-Nigeria relations and builds on the positive momentum from U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s visit to Nigeria in January and the U.S.-Nigeria Binational Commission meetings held in April in Abuja, where the AI conference was announced.
