Cosmo-uBuntu: A perspective on Artificial Intelligence (AI)

• In Event: A forum on Africa in AI ethics and policies

Proposal

uBuntu can be understood as a microcosm of the Shona construct Ukama, which means relatedness of all things in the cosmos (Le Grange, 2018). Critical to this philosophical perspective is humanity in its relation with others, the social and the ecological. Humanness is therefore inextricably bound up in human beings connectedness with other human beings and with an ever-changing and complex biophysical and technological world. The sense of wholeness and interconnectedness of self with the social and natural by implication signifies that caring for others also involves a duty to care for nature and the more-than-human world. If uBuntu means that our deepest moral obligation is to become more fully human, Cosmo-Ubuntu is the nondiscriminatory and nonhierarchical understanding of humans that derives from African cosmology uBuntu (Cossa, 2018). Accordingly, Cosmo-uBuntu is the voluntary embracing of uBuntu as a foundational value system in our participation in planetary conviviality,
without forcing universality (Cossa, 2018). In this value system, personhood applies to all humans and precludes individuation, classifications, and hierarchies. In other words, humans are humans because of humans, and thus technology such as AI should not define humanity and relations.

Author

• Jose Cossa, Pennsylvania State University