‘If Africa Does Not Build Its Own AI Future, The AI Divide Will Become The Social Divide’
Tech entrepreneur Kate Kallot argues that Africa must develop its own AI infrastructure to avoid becoming a mere data source for foreign powers. She warns that failing to build sovereign AI systems will exacerbate the social and economic divide between Africa and the Global North.
Why it matters
It addresses the geopolitical implications of AI development and the risk of digital colonialism in emerging markets.
Africa has always been the source, never the ‘refinery’,” Kate Kallot, a techpreneur based in Kenya and known for her work advancing technology access across the continent, says to FORBES AFRICA.
“We grew the cacao, someone else made the chocolate. We mined the cobalt, someone else built the battery. Data is the new raw material and if we are not careful, AI becomes the next iteration of the same story,” she adds. “African data trains the models, the intelligence flows back as a product Africans pay for, built on realities Africans never validated; optimized for contexts that were never ours.”
As the founder and CEO of Amini, an African data infrastructure company building sovereign data and compute systems for Africa and the Global South, Kallot actively advocates for placing the continent at the forefront of technological advancement and AI.
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