Artificial Intelligence - A World of Opportunity for Namibia

Although locally we often speak of fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), robotics process automation (RPA), Internet of Things (IoT) etc, as if they are distant realities only used in technologically advanced pockets of the Western World, the ordinary Namibian might be surprised to learn just how much they interact with these technologies daily.

AI is perhaps the most surreptitiously integrated technology we interface with daily in using the internet and its offshoots. The ability of your phones front camera to recognise you and unlock itself is called vision AI or machine vision, while your phones virtual assistants ability to understand and act on your commands is called natural language processing. The ability of your GPS to suggest to you the least congested, shortest way to your destination is another branch of AI called predictive analysis.

There are many definitions of what AI is, but they all generally describe AI as the ability of a machine (a human creation) to do things that only humans could do previously. Not only that, but AI is able to carry out human tasks more accurately and efficiently because of the phenomenon of supercomputing that has made AI capabilities almost limitless. This provides us an unthinkable extension to our combined human intelligence, limited only by our manufactured computing power. Potentially it gives us the ability to solve the previously unsolvable, cure the currently incurable or do the now undoable.

AI works by having computers analyse large sets of data about a particular thing (process, behaviour, etc) and process that data continuously, using highly complex mathematical algorithms that allow it to learn from patterns it recognises in the data. In so doing, it can learn the best way to complete a certain task by analysing data in different ways to complete that task, teach itself how to perfect or perform the task better and then perform it on an astronomically larger, faster and more efficient scale than human beings ever could. 

HUMAN 2.0

AI is fundamentally a much more advanced version of us, created by us – Human 2.0, if you will. One of the key distinctions of 4IR from its three predecessors is its relatively faster rate of adoption because of the ease of purchasing and deploying technology, provided there are funds and human resources available to acquire and run that technology. 

Namibia had no skills or infrastructure to join the Englishmens adoption of the use of water and steam to mechanise production during the first Industrial Revolution in 1784. That revolution started a century before Germany colonised then pre-colonial and pre-modernisation Namibia in 1884. 

Namibia was also a late adopter of the internet-centred third Industrial Revolution, with Telecom Namibia only offering ADSL internet access in late 2006 – almost four decades after the Western World started using the internet for the digitisation of distribution and services (since 1969).

Namibias adoption of AI requires us to invest intentionally in its technologies. According to the International Data Corporations Worldwide Artificial Intelligence Spending Guide, global spending on AI is projected to increase from US$50,1 billion in 2020 to more than US$110 billion in 2024. The increase is largely fuelled by businesses driving their digital transformation agendas to remain digitally competitive. 

The critical financial position of government spending on Covid-19 expenditure has left us, like many other nations, financially disadvantaged at the dawn of worldwide AI proliferation, and the question of funding is a difficult one for those responsible for the government purse.

Adopting AI also requires us to train or source those who will develop AI algorithms, those who will guide its strategic implementation, and those who will be responsible for governing its use. While our two largest tertiary institutions, Nust and Unam, commendably offer courses in the fields of AI, big data, and other emerging technologies, there is limited to no opportunity for practical exposure to commercially designing and manufacturing the technologies, managing or governing them. 

The private sectors adoption of AI for competitiveness therefore becomes a prerequisite for the creation of job opportunities in the field, and the subsequent accumulation of AI skills in the country. Beyond that, our tertiary sector will need to work actively at creating leading AI centres of excellence and study programmes to guarantee a steady local supply of AI skills. This is in addition to the need for a concerted effort to ensure readily accessible and affordable internet particularly for students, supported by a strong telecommunications infrastructure across the country, without which effective 4IR adoption will remain but a dream.

IMAGINATION AND IMPLEMENTATION

To understand the potential impact AI could have for our countrys advancement requires us to imagine the results of its potential use in key sectors of our economy. A March 2021 community paper by the World Economic Forum on AI innovations in agriculture highlights cases such as machine vision being used to conduct a census of plant populations, identify disease/pest infestation before they spread, and determine fruit/vegetables readiness for picking to avoid wastage. AI is also being used to identify illegal fishing vessels and thus preserve marine wildlife, as well as to automate more accurate screening of mature (catchable) and immature (not catchable) fish, thereby reducing unsustainable fishing. 

There are further use cases of AI in medical research to make more effective cures, vaccines or medication; or in mining, where mine staff are asked to wear sensors to monitor their behaviour and pick up on problematic safety trends that highlight a need for simulated safety retraining – this in turn reduces potential mine fatality reports in future.

There is no question that Namibia will soon have to start investing in rolling out AI in-country if it is to remain globally competitive. We simply cannot afford to lag behind on a key economic accelerator and contributor such as this. 

If adopted on a broad-scale timeously and competently, AI could extraordinarily accelerate our economic growth, sharpen our global competitive edge, and guarantee our prosperity as a nation. This is what underscores the significance and importance of the recently established National 4IR taskforce. 

Namibia has historically been completely surpassed by previous industrial revolutions – 4IR, however, presents a unique opportunity for us to position ourselves among global economic heavyweights.

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