ChatGPT and the representation of Africa in the field of AI

ChatGPT, also known as Chat Generative Pre-Trained Transformer, was launched by OpenAI in November 2022. It is fine-tuned with supervised and reinforcement learning techniques. It is making headlines around the world because it can give users instant answers to any questions or queries. 

A chatbot built on top of OpenAI’s GPT-3 by California-based OpenAI sparked concern about the under-representation of Africa in the field of artificial intelligence. Reportedly, Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for only 1.06 per cent of the world’s total AI journal publications.

Justin Arenstein, the CEO of Code for Africa, said that many human rights defenders fight online hate and abuse with the help of artificial intelligence. Justin noted that some decisions in African countries are based on data and algorithms that have no relevance to reality. 

Reportedly, AI reflects the dominance of Western and Asian companies. East Asia accounts for 42.87% of the world’s total AI journal publications, while North America accounts for 22.70% of the total AI publications. 

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Only 39% of Africans have internet access compared to 89% in North America. According to a report from Semafor, OpenAI assigned contractors from Latin America and Eastern Europe to create data for its AI tech to learn about natural language. It is important to note that OpenAI did not assign such tasks to contractors from the African continent.

Recently, Gmail’s creator Paul Buccheit said that ChatGPT may replace Google. He said that Google may be destroyed by the new AI bot in the next two years.

OpenAI said that it used Kenyan workers to help build out a tool that can tag problematic content on the internet. The workers were paid between $1.32 to $2 an hour to find out the content that involved sexual abuse, hate speech, and violence.

Much of AI’s potential has not been yet explored in African countries. AI must receive attention from investors in African countries.