Chronicle Editor
Wallace Ruzvidzo Herald Reporter
President Mnangagwa is set to launch the Artificial Intelligence (AI) and media communication policies soon, Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Minister Dr Jenfan Muswere has said. Once launched, the two policies are expected to usher information sovereignty and enable the country to become a global powerhouse in terms of information and communication innovations. Speaking at the Ilth International Conference on Communication and Information Science at the National University of Science and Technology (Nust) recently, Dr Muswere said both policies had since been finalised. “We finalised the new artificial intelligence policy and a new media and communication policy and soon His Excellency the President will be in a position to launch all these policy documents,” he said.
“And these policy documents should be able to assist Zimbabweans and the continent to be able to determine the future of communication, to be able to determine the full national sovereignty of our country, for sovereignty is no longer defined in terms of physical border boundaries and parameters because disruptive technologies, the utilisation of information science and artificial intelligence has altered the physical parameters of our borders.” Under President Mnangagwa’s leadership, Dr Muswere said, Zimbabwe had made tremendous strides technologically. As such, the Second Republic will continue to champion innovation enablers, he said. “He (President Mnangagwa) introduced innovation hubs, he also introduced and resourced innovation financing models under the Universal Services Fund funded by POTRAZ. He also launched the new ICT Policy and working together as a team under the leadership of President Mnangagwa, we were able to develop the national broadband plan,” he said. Dr Muswere said it was high time Zimbabwe and the continent took a leading role in the formulation of global inventions. He, thus, challenged the country’s tertiary institutions to take up the mantle. “In the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the more external countries or institutions outside our continent and outside our country, collect, retrieve, generate, process and analyse data through the internet economy in the internet world, the more they control and possess this information, the more it affects the decision making in our country.
“The new internet world that we live in, in the Fourth Industrial Revolution, has ensured that we now have social media imperialism. But it is mainly because Africa, Zimbabweans, we are not taking the lead to innovate; for necessity is the mother of all inventions. “Universities should take the lead to develop our own social media platforms, to be able to develop various hardware and software frameworks for us to be able to achieve digital sovereignty as a country,” said Dr Muswere.
derick.khumalo