As the global uptake of Artificial Intelligence (AI) continues to gain pace, the experts urge governments to put the establishment of AI infrastructure and security technologies for safeguarding national sovereignty on top of their priority lists.
Some prominent Kenyan cybersecurity professionals have revealed that a major contributory factor to the eventual perils of security is the continuous exaggeration of the AI usage especially by the young generation.
The experts also report that under the condition that there will be no protection against the advances of deepfake technologies, the result of impersonating individuals and even executives in businesses, and governments with digital fraud and to spread false information is likely to occur.
The experts further noted that among the different strategies for combating digital crime, trust in online spaces could be achieved by putting the detection of deepfakes at the forefront of national priorities. They added that the capability of revealing the artificially altered media content is a weapon against disinformation, identity theft, and cybercrime.
The American market for Artificial Intelligence is expected to grow from an estimated 4.5 billion dollars in 2025 to 16.5 billion dollars by 2030, with a significant contribution from the adoption of AI in sectors like finance, health, and education.
On the continent, stakeholders are thus asking the question: “Can government’s chief executives today muster the boldness to commit to the private sector the untapped resources of the continent so as to leapfrog innovation and at the same time build up an enabling regulatory milieu that guarantees cybersecurity, openness, and ethical utilization of AI?”
Moreover, they argued that money the government would allocate towards AI technology would not only be a matter of technology but also a matter of national sovereignty as it would enable Africa to chart its digital future as well as facilitate the protection of its citizens within the rapidly changing cyberspace.
