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Dr Dennis Magaya
CONSUMERS are rapidly adopting digital technology because it is equipped with intuitive user interfaces such that no user training is required.
However, for the majority of technologies used in business and people’s lives, the biggest barriers to uptake remain interface complexity, which causes anxiety, discomfort, fear and rejection.
Fortunately, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a perfect solution to narrow the gap between humans and technology.
In some cases, when a person interacts with AI or another human being on the same issue, it’s not possible to tell the difference.
This is because AI are computer systems that mimic the intelligence found in human beings.
Therefore, AI robots can see, feel, hear and have emotions like people.
The advantages brought by AI to a person in the street, in rural or urban areas, home or office, elderly and youth are profound.
The first AI benefit is that it allows the use of natural language to interact with technology.
Using Natural Language Processing (NLP) technology, humans can have a two-way conversation in their mother language with technology using voice, written text or sign language as if they are talking to another person. NPL is a computer programme that is trained the same way as people to read, hear and pronounce alphabet letters and numbers, verbs, nouns, adjectives, different accents, dialects and even to interpret emotions.
This means a mobile app, chatbot or a business system won’t require a menu; instead, you just write or say what you want the system to do.
The NLP programme uses the microphone, speaker and cameras to hear, see and communicate.
The opportunity for Africa, which has up to 2 100 languages, is to create text, audio and sign language data bases that can be used to train NLP technologies so that all communities can use AI to connect to even the most complicated systems in the world.
If this is not done, some languages and communities will be rapidly marginalised.
Currently, the most common consumer AI applications are ChatGPT and Meta AI, which is on WhatsApp.
They use NPL to enable people to ask information and get a response. When they are not trained on language words, they won’t understand; therefore, don’t give a response.
The second AI benefit is that through a technology called Machine Learning (ML), which a computer programme that can be trained to analyse and make decisions based on the presented data.
Just like a human being, the computer (machine) must learn first and its accuracy improves from training on more data.
The ML technology can also be programmed to learn on its own just like humans.
Data means any type of content such as documents in different formats, text, picture, video and audio.
As long as the ML system is trained, huge volumes of data can be uploaded on the click of a button, analysed, a decision made and a response generated in any preferred content.
ML can be used to mimic human intelligence on a lot of applications where data analysis and decision are required.
This simplifies technology because anyone can just upload the data, which could be a picture, video, text or document, using a phone.
The AI application will process and provide the results in the format which the user wants, for example, video, audio, picture of text.
The third AI benefit is through technology is called computer vision.
This technology enables computers to recognise images similar to how humans see, process visual data and decide.
It involves identifying, classifying, locating and following movement of objects in an image.
This means anyone with a device with AI computer vison can use it to see and understand images without having to worry how it the technology is working.
The combination of NLP, ML and computer vison makes it possible for any person and any place not to be left behind on socio-economic development.
Since AI becomes the simulated human that sits between technology and people, it means for the first time technology and people are merging.
The AI technologies are implemented through software algorithms which are trained on data to model a use case.
The model is packaged into a solution for health care, agriculture and education.
The beauty is that you don’t have to develop the software algorithms because they are available as open-source software on the cloud.
Some are for free while others have to be paid for.
Given that remote and marginalised communities don’t have access to affordable and high-quality internet access and the technology to capture, generate, use or save data, it means these communities are not included in the data found on the internet, which most AI models use.
Worse still, the available AI algorithms won’t be trained on this missing data, which makes them biased towards what they were trained on.
For instance, people have an accent on the language they were trained on. As such, AI solutions wont be of value to these communities.
This problem doesn’t exist for business because a company uses its own internal data to develop AI its own AI solutions.
AI enables automation of several tasks that required humans.
In addition, there are tasks that are better done by AI than humans especially.
AI, therefore, leads to job losses and the creation of new and different types of jobs.
For instance, if we use AI as a chatbot to support customers, the staff who were previously doing that work can be assigned to design better chatbots rather than working on routine tasks.
Although AI cannot completely replace human beings, there are some tasks that it can take over completely, for example, data capturing and loan processing. In case where trillions of complex data have to processed simultaneously, AI is perhaps the only option.
AI is used for many applications in many home appliances, cars to advanced systems such as satellites and weapons.
The disadvantaged and marginalised can now be included in the digital economy due to the AI technology capabilities.
However, there must be deliberate strategies to develop the solutions.
The unemployed can use AI to generate content for sale for various markets.
They simply describe what they want and AI generates the content.
In arts, musicians can use AI as a producer, while sports videos can be posted onto AI systems for talent identification at an early age.
In agriculture, farmers can simply take a picture or video, post onto an AI application and get diagnosis of diseases and get the remedy in their own language.
Farmers can accurately predict the amount of fertiliser and irrigation water required based on weather conditions.
In culture, the AI application can search volumes of stored videos, audios and pictures and make recommendations of practices in the appropriate language in a split of a second.
Currently, education is generally one-size-fits-all.
Although teachers try to customise teaching, the learning materials are the same.
AI allows the customisation of both teaching and learning to suit individual needs on real-time basis.
AI can identify that a student is struggling on a certain topic by reading facial expressions and automatically adjusts the teaching and learning process.
When reading text books, the material is adjusted to suit the student’s speed and level of comprehension.
Dr Dennis Magaya is AI and digital transformation strategist. He is CEO of Rubiem solutions, which offers business strategy consultancy services and has operations in SADC region. He can be contacted on [email protected]/ +263717770666
Online Reporter