GITEX: HAMZAT, GLOBAL LEADERS ADVOCATE FOR STANDARD REGULATIONS OF AI 

•As Alake harps on education for technology acceleration

Regulations, safety and Deepfake took centre stage as global leaders converged on Dubai for the GITEX Global, holding at the Dubai World Trade Center in Dubai.

Speaking on the theme: AI Urbanism: Will Algorithms Develop My City?, the panel discussants took turns to explain how rapidly the world is changing, but sounded a cautionary note of the need for the technology world, global policymakers and political leaders to look deeply into the issues of standardised regulatory frameworks and compliance policies in artificial intelligence. 

They said this is the best way to guarantee safety and security for the entire world in the years ahead.

Lagos State Deputy Governor, Dr. Obafemi Hamzat, who led the Lagos State Government team to the technology conference in Dubai, said there must be strict legal and compliance procedures in artificial intelligence, just the way it is with the global data protection policy.

Hamzat said that laws should be made with regard to standard protocols on Artificial Intelligence (AI), just as it is with data protection, saying there should be the removal of biases in all the operations of AI. 

He said: “We need to drive AI for all civil cases. For example, we are all in this place from every part of the world and if someone falls ill here now, can we get the person taken care of even though he is not from here?

“The question is, how can we use Artificial Intelligence to benefit everyone in terms of health, education and government services? 

“Secondly, data should be made to connect in such a way that it deals with all jurisdictions. One of the mistakes we made in the past as humans when psychology started was that data was made basically for the white people, therefore, the prognosis worked for the people in Africa.”

Hamzat added that data inclusivity is a key factor for successful deployment and operational effectiveness of AI. He said the entire world should be involved in the development of standard protocols so that it will work across all jurisdictions in the world.

“Another question is, how do we ensure that AI data is inclusive and we all sign off on it across all jurisdictions in order to remove biases? Some people have said that AI should be used as judges because we can remove inherent biases. The reality for me is that we must also have the AI rights bill just like we have a data protection bill so that everybody knows the principles of operations, which must be globally focused.

“When we do that, then humanity will benefit because the standards are there, the protocols are there, and we would begin to push them into other areas such as health, education, water and so on.” Hamzat stated.

During his panel session on funding tech startups in Africa, the Lagos State Commissioner for Science, Technology and Innovation, Mr. Tunbosun Alake, harped on education, training, research and development as panaceas for higher technology penetration in the continent.

He said the Lagos State Government, under Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, developed a working model to harness the numerous talents and potential abounding in the State through several initiatives.

He said, “We help startups at a very early stage. The idea is to de-risk these startups from the bigger PC guys, and I think it is a place where you can really come in to help at the incubation stage, the ideation stage, and all of that. The experimentation of new ideas, I think, is what we really excel at. Part of that had actually dovetailed to research and development. So, we have the biggest R and D fund than any State in Nigeria. We fund over 70 initiatives in four major universities in Lagos State, which is just to de-risk the creation stage as well.

“I remember that we were working on a particular environmental science project that was supposed to be an alternative to non-biodegradable plastics and that research work is still on, but on the way, we discovered two new cases, and two companies have come out of it from the university. So those are some of the things that I think governments across Africa can really drive in terms of de-risking creation at the very early stage, and then they become companies later.

“But again, I see a lot of challenges being mentioned, infrastructure and all that. I think the greatest challenge in Africa is education and I have examples. Even in Nigeria, if you look at the most educated part, those are the parts that are really turning out economic value. So, I think there is a need for African renaissance of education funding across the board because if you drive education, you enlighten people, and then people will change the environment.

“I think that is the most important thing, but it is also the most  difficult thing to fund because sometimes ROI is not immediate. You might not get the full benefit on that ROI because you educate a lot, and they might move to a place where there are more benefits but I think at a time we will catch up with the ROI cycle.”