Adetayo Adebowale shapes national AI strategy
Filmmaker Adetayo Adebowale is contributing to Nigeria's National AI Strategy, advocating for the integration of generative AI in the local film industry. He emphasizes that cultural specificity is a competitive advantage and encourages Nigerian creators to shape AI tools rather than resisting them.
Why it matters
It highlights how emerging economies are proactively developing national frameworks to ensure AI development reflects local cultural contexts.
Layer 1 …calls for African creatives to lead generative film revolution
While global AI startups race to claim unicorn status in film, Nigeria’s creative industry is still debating whether artificial intelligence belongs on set at all. One Lagos-based filmmaker says the debate is already over.
Adetayo Adebowale, known in creative circles as Diwizad, was selected in July 2026 as one of 19 practitioners to contribute to a landmark research study by Cambridge Judge Business School on how AI is reshaping Nigeria’s creative industries. The study’s findings are now feeding directly into Nigeria’s National AI Strategy through the Federal Ministry of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy.
Adebowale was invited specifically as a voice at the intersection of filmmaking and generative AI. In the interviews, he rejected the idea of waiting for Western platforms to “get Africa right.”
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