African voices must help shape the future of AI

Source Domain: www.vaticannews.va

In the wake of the promulgation of Pope Leo XIV’s encyclical “Magnifica humanitas” one of Africa’s leading voices in artificial intelligence reiterates his conviction that Africans must not be excluded in global discussions regarding the development of AI.

By Linda Bordoni

As artificial intelligence transforms the way people work, communicate, learn and make decisions at a remarkable speed, one question is becoming increasingly urgent: Who gets to shape the technologies that are reshaping humanity itself?

For Professor Benjamin Rosman, one of Africa’s leading voices in artificial intelligence research, the answer is clear. If entire regions of the world are absent from the conversation, AI risks reinforcing existing inequalities rather than serving the common good.

Speaking to Vatican Radio following the promulgation of Pope Leo XIV’s encyclical “Magnifica humanitas On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence” and his participation in the Vatican conference Preserving Human Faces and Voices, Rosman reflected on the challenges and opportunities presented by AI, the importance of including African perspectives in global discussions, and the moral vision outlined by the Pope in the encyclical.

Rosman is Professor of Computer Science, Machine Learning and Robotics at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg and Director of the Machine Intelligence and Neural Discovery Institute (MIND), South Africa’s leading interdisciplinary research centre dedicated to understanding intelligence in both humans and machines.

The institute, he explains, brings together researchers from fields as diverse as neuroscience, behavioural psychology, philosophy, ethics, governance, cognitive evolution and the creative arts.

“We’ve brought together academics from a broad cross-section of disciplines that have some sort of interest in core questions around intelligence, whether it’s artificial or natural,” he says.

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