The event themed ‘Harnessing AI for Sustainable Development in Eastern Africa: Governance, Ethics, Capacities, and Partnerships’ brings together ministers from 15 countries and aims to explore AI’s potential to drive sustainable development and societal transformation in the region.
Key to EARFAI will be discussions on the concrete implementation of the Recommendation on the Ethics of AI, the to-date only global standard on AI with 193 countries adopting its provisions in 2021.
Through the Readiness Assessment Methodology (RAM), almost 60 countries are implementing the standard through a comprehensive diagnostic exercise, of which 22 are from Africa.
EARFAI which is also the platform for the presentation of Readiness Assessment Methodology (RAM) reports from the region is intended to stimulate discourse on the Artificial Intelligence (AI) policy environment within the EA Sub-Region in order to support the development and use of universally agreed practices in AI globally.
The event will also see Eastern African private sector representatives joining UNESCO’s Business Council on the Ethics of AI community, and female experts from the region discussing the role of women in AI as part of a session with UNESCO Women4Ethical AI network.
“The Eastern Africa sub-Regional Forum on Artificial Intelligence (EARFAI) serves as a crucial platform to advance good AI governance, based on the work to implement UNESCO’s Recommendation on the Ethics of AI, through its Readiness Assessment Methodology, applied to 22 countries in the region, and five Eastern African countries, which will be represented in the Forum. I congratulate Kenya and East Africa for their leadership in this domain. They can count on us to advance AI that benefit their people and their economies”, said Ramos.
EARFAI is intended to stimulate discourse on the Artificial Intelligence (AI) policy environment within the EA Sub-Region in order to support the development and use of universally agreed practices in AI globally.
Source : Kenya Broadcasting Corporation
