President and Chief Executive Officer of MTN Group Ralph Mupita has urged African countries to develop artificial intelligence (AI) systems that reflect the continent’s languages, cultures and priorities.
Mupita made the call on Wednesday in Lagos during an engagement with journalists, participating in the Media Innovation Programme (MIP) of MTN Nigeria.
The MTN boss discussed the implications of AI for Africa and the role telecommunications operators could play in expanding access to emerging technologies.
He warned that limited digital access could deepen existing inequalities.
‘’Africa must ensure that rapid development of AI does not create another digital divide in which millions of people are excluded because they lack affordable devices, internet access or technologies that understand their languages.
“AI is one of those foundational technologies that are so disruptive that they change the future,” he said.
Mupita explained that Africa must do more than consume technologies developed elsewhere, but must participate actively in building the systems that would shape the global digital economy.
“What stops us creating our own African foundation model that we can gain from? This is software engineering. There are lots of software engineers around,” he said.
Mupita, who also serves on the global AI for Good Commission, said the continent needed to make African languages more visible in AI systems.
He observed that African languages accounted for only a small proportion of content available on the internet.
‘’This limits the usefulness of many digital tools for people who communicate primarily in those languages.
“We need to bring African languages — the 2,000 African languages — into these AI models,” he said, citing Hausa, Yoruba, Shona and Swahili as examples.
Mupita said that MTN was making efforts to improve the representation of African languages in AI systems through industry partnerships facilitated by the Global System for Mobile Communications Association (GSMA).
He said that the company was exploring the responsible use of voice-based data, including customer-service interactions, to help train models capable of understanding local languages.
“If you are not there, the intelligence won’t be as useful to many, many Africans,” he said.
He stressed, however, that no single company could solve the challenge alone, calling for collaboration among telecommunications operators, technology developers and other stakeholders across the continent.
Beyond access to technology, Mupita urged young Africans to shift from being passive consumers of digital content to becoming creators who could develop products, build audiences and generate income.
“The big thing for youth is: how do we make sure that they are content creators, not just content consumers?
‘’African youths can use digital platforms to develop content with global appeal, build businesses and participate in international markets without being limited by their immediate physical environment, ‘’ he said.
He encouraged young people to build digital skills, experiment with technology and develop solutions relevant to their communities and the wider world.
The MTN president also said digital trust must remain central to the expansion of AI and internet services.
He identified online scams, social engineering, fraudulent calls and the misuse of personal information as growing concerns that required stronger collaboration among telecommunications operators, banks, regulators and social media platforms.
Discussion0