Google on Thursday announced a significant investment package of $37 million aimed at accelerating Artificial Intelligence (AI) development across the African continent.
The U.S. technology giant pledged comprehensive support for local AI research and a diverse range of projects, from advanced crop monitoring systems to adapting AI for Africa’s many languages.
This commitment also extends to backing promising startups, particularly within the health and education sectors.
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James Manyika, a senior vice president at Google, highlighted the continent’s growing prominence in the AI landscape during the launch of a new ‘AI community centre’ in Accra, Ghana’s capital.
“Africa is home to some of the most important and inspiring work in AI today,” Manyika stated.
This new centre will function as a pivotal hub for training, collaborative efforts, and AI-focused experimentation, including programs designed to enhance AI literacy.
Among the key initiatives introduced is the AI Collaborative for Food Security.
This programme seeks to connect researchers with non-profit organisations to create tools that can improve early detection of hunger, bolster crop resilience, and refine decision-making processes for smallholder farmers.
The ultimate goal is to equip African food systems to better withstand the increasing pressures from climate change and economic instability.
AI is already making inroads with some African farmers, notably in Nigeria, which boasts a thriving domestic tech industry.
Local agricultural technology firms have emerged, developing solutions to monitor soil conditions for crops and track temperature and humidity on poultry farms.
Google further plans to launch a dedicated financing platform to support AI-driven startups, specifically targeting the agriculture, health, and education sectors.
Through its philanthropic arm, the company has committed $7 million to expand AI education initiatives in Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, and Ghana.
To advance linguistic diversity in AI, Google announced $3 million in funding for Masakhane, a technology collective focused on developing AI tools for over 40 African languages.
Additionally, two separate $1 million research grants will be awarded to the African Institute of Data Science and Artificial Intelligence and the Wits Machine Intelligence and Neural Discovery Institute, both located in South Africa.
Ghana’s Communications and Digital Technology Minister, Sam George, urged Ghanaians to leverage AI’s potential to address local challenges.
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He encouraged the use of AI to ‘look at how we’re going to fix our national challenges such as flooding, waste management and traffic management.’
Google’s prior AI efforts in Africa have included projects focused on maternal health technology in Ghana and Nigeria, early wildfire alerts in East Africa, and the development of language models in Accra and Nairobi.
