A forum on Africa in AI ethics and policies

Group Submission Type: Formal Panel Session

Proposal

In today’s world, artificial intelligence (AI) has become the center of all conversations given not only its novelty, but also increasing influence on all aspects of life in Africa and across the world. However, in an AI-centered world, Africa seems to be absent in the development and discussion that define AI and its future. Indeed, Africa seems not to be a major player nor a decision maker in AI discussions, and rather a consumer waiting for others to produce for her consumption. This panel challenges this perception and re-examines AI and its rise in Africa, with a focus on ethics and policies practices on the continent. We center Africa in this conversation about AI ethics and policies by inviting scholars with various experiences and from different countries to address this supposed absence of Africa in AI debates.
Africa’s role in the world is often dismissed or ignored, which has allowed many to overlook any input on AI from the African continent. The panelists will address the following questions:

a) What can be said about the impact of AI on the African continent?
b) How are African countries defining/developing AI policies?
c) What role does Africa play in the development of AI and the shaping of its AI ethics?

Using afropolitanism as a theoretical framework, we address these questions to understand Africa’s needed agency in AI development and discussion. According to Mbembe (2005), afropolitanism is:
a way to be in the world that refuses, by principle, any form of victimhood identity ( ... ) it is also a political and cultural attitude with regard to the nation, race and the issue of difference in general. From an Afropolitanism perspective, panelists will discuss:

African actors’ agency and subjectivities in the shaping AI

As AI tools become increasingly integrated into various aspects of life on the continent, it is imperative to consolidate emerging perspectives on how these technologies reflect, reinforce, and challenge existing power structures, cultural norms, and the lingering technological inequalities between Africa and the Global North. This panel will discuss works on developing Machine Learning/Artificial Intelligence methods to extract insights from data in Africa. The panel will focus on the intersection of Machine Learning and Natural Language Processing, with a focus on techniques to improve tools for and availability of data for local languages.

Contextualizing ethics: Perspective on the African relevance of AI ethics

As previous technology, AI advances have the potential to alter society unexpectedly (Abrams, 2024). While AI has the potential to increase productivity and efficiency with the automation of tasks, which can lead to cost savings, growth for businesses, and enable the development of new products and services such as art, entertainment, transportation, and healthcare (Luxton & Watson, 2023), there are also negative impacts on the society. For instance, the potential loss of jobs due to the growing prevalence of AI in various industries, which will negatively affect workers’ financial well-being (Luxton & Watson, 2023). Furthermore, AI can perpetuate and amplify biases and prejudices, which can lead to discriminatory treatments of certain groups (Wee & Findlay, 2020). In effect, AI has the potential of psychological harm with the loss of human values such as empathy, agency, self-reliance, and pride in one’s work (Luxton & Watson, 2023). Given the potential of AI to impact society, concerns about ethical issues in the use and application of AI are ever relevant. Ethics considers questions related to what is wrong and right. Yet, wrong and right are informed by culture and do not rest on invariable core values, not influenced by one's environment (Chang, 2012). However, concerns about ethics in AI have often been driven by western thoughts in western contexts.In other words, AI ethics and the establishment of AI ethical standards have mostly rested on western ethical thinking. In this paper, we problematize the cultural relevance of current AI ethical standards. We examine how culture intersects with current AI ethics, or code of ethics developed by various organizations; and how non-western cultures such as African culture can interface with AI ethics and the implication of such interaction in the development of AI ethics standards.

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

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.


References
Abrams, Z. (2024). Addressing equity and ethics in artificial intelligence. Monitor on Psychology. Retrieved from https://www.apa.org/monitor/2024/04/addressing-equity-ethics-artificial-intelligence
Cossa, J. (2018).. uBuntu, Missio Dei, Justice, and Socio-Humanitarian Action. Public Theology and Racial Justice Collaborative, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN
Chang, C. L.-H. (2012). How to build an appropriate information ethics code for enterprises in Chinese cultural society. Computers in Human Behavior, 28(2), 420–433.

Luxton, D. D. & Watson., E. (2023). Psychological and Psychosocial Consequences of Super Disruptive A.I.: Public Health Implications and Recommendations. In T. Undheim & D. Zimmer (eds.), Proceedings of the Stanford Existential Risk Conference (pp. 60-74). Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.25740/mg941vt9619
Mbembe, A. (2005). Afropolitanisme. Afrique Culture: Les mondes en relation. Retrieved from www.africultures.com/php/?nav=article&no=4248 .

Sub Unit

• Afrika SIG

Chair

• Rebecca Y Bayeck, Utah State University

Individual Presentations

• Contextualizing ethics: Perspective on the African relevance of AI ethics - Tutaleni I Asino; Rebecca Y Bayeck, Utah State University

• Cosmo-uBuntu: A perspective on Artificial Intelligence (AI) - Jose Cossa, Pennsylvania State University