I shared an opinion on a national AI roadmap, and asked everyone in the committee: how do you plan to power this AI roadmap in [that country]?
Good People, the challenge Africa has on AI is not really the technical component. The real issue is electricity. If you do not have electricity to power an electric bulb in Ovim, how do you think you will have energy to power that AI future?
There are things which cannot be leapfrogged and one of those is electricity. Indeed, there is no way we can touch that AI future UNLESS we can do the basic things. Electricity is a component of those “basic things”.
So, as governments launch AI roadmaps in Africa, do not forget to challenge them, and remind them that our AI today is electricity. If we do not understand that, it does mean that we will be scaling AI consumerism, instead of AI production.
Image credit: Barchart – Global Data Centers now consume more electricity than most countries
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