The African Union AI Continental Strategy: Examining the African AI Landscape

The CSIS Wadhwani Center for AI and Advanced Technologies is pleased to host an event surveying the African Union’s AU-AI Continental Strategy for Africa and the wider African AI ecosystem. This recording will premiere on April 25 at 10:00 AM ET.

The event will begin with a presentation by Dr. Barbara Glover, Program Officer for the African Union High-Level Panel on Emerging Technologies (APET) at the African Union Development Agency – NEPAD (AUDA-NEPAD). Dr. Glover will present APET’s work in drafting the AU-AI Continental Strategy, which is expected to be finalized by July 2024.

Following this presentation, Gregory C. Allen, Director of the Wadhwani Center for AI and Advanced Technologies, will be joined by three panelists who will bring their insights from policy, private sector, and academic backgrounds in the African AI landscape:

Dr. Chinasa Okolo is a Consulting Expert with the African Union on the development of the AU-AI Continental Strategy and a Governance Studies Fellow for the Center for Technology Innovation at Brookings. Dr. Okolo also serves as an Ethics Advisor to the Equiano Institute, a research lab focused on steering safe and trustworthy AI in Africa.

Sheila Kyarisiima is a Presidential Appointee to the Kenya National Investment Council and a Partner at NISK Capital Limited, where she heads the firm’s corporate finance and transaction advisory business across 6 countries in East and Central Africa. She also leads NISK’s alternative investment strategies in non-traditional sectors including technology and film and serves on the Board of Directors for CIB Kenya Limited, a Kenyan subsidiary of Egypt’s largest private bank. 

Dr. Nii Longdon Sowah is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Computer Engineering at the University of Ghana. His research interests include advancing AI adoption in Ghana, robotics, and computer vision. He has authored and co-authored several peer reviewed journal and conference papers.  

This event is made possible by general support to CSIS.