China can help Africa unlock AI potential

Artificial intelligence is one of the promising areas of cooperation between China and Africa. The continent's flourishing tech hubs and young tech-savvy population are well complemented by the Asian powerhouse's wealth of expertise and investment capability.

Speaking ahead of the two sessions, the annual meetings of China's National People's Congress and the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, Lawrence Nderu, a research fellow in the Department of Computing at Kenya's Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, said that China is revolutionizing the AI sector.

He said that through the development of DeepSeek, China has proven that it's possible to develop AI solutions with fewer computing capabilities as long as the developer is efficient at the algorithm level.

This, he said, has particularly given confidence to the Global South, which lacks computing capability and will leapfrog the region's ability to benefit from AI and create meaningful solutions.

Nderu hopes that the two sessions could hold discussions that will pave the way for collaborations between Chinese and African scientists to build solutions that can upscale, taking note of Africa's constrained resources in terms of computing capability.

Nderu said that AI can help Africa improve its agriculture and healthcare sectors as well as address climate change and security challenges. In the education sector, he said that AI can be used for personalized learning. Teachers and lecturers can also build lesson plans using AI or create solutions that students can use for science, technology, engineering and mathematics-based courses.

In light of corruption that has plagued some African countries for a long time, he said that AI can be used to ensure that resources are utilized properly. Financial institutions or tax authorities can deploy AI solutions to uncover money laundering, fraud, or tax evasion.

AI applications have the ability to work with datasets too large for manual handling, making it possible to reveal or even predict corruption or fraud that previously was nearly or completely impossible to detect, according to some anti-corruption experts.

Noting that China is known for its production capability, which also involves the use of AI in some industries, Nderu suggested the need for technology transfer capability to Africa.

With DeepSeek having sent shockwaves through the US tech establishment, Nderu said that he expects heightened competition in the development of AI solutions and building of more optimized solutions. "Going forward, this kind of competition has its own advantage as well, because here in Africa, where we believed that it would take a bit of years for us to get to that computing power, we know we can do it now," he said.

Nderu said that contrary to the current scenario, many people would expect China and the US to cooperate, which could result in the development of the best solutions because they both have tech-intensive industries.

In what appears to be efforts to maintain its global lead in AI technology, the US has been imposing export sanctions on China for some key components. In December, the US imposed new export controls to China that restrict the sale of cutting-edge semiconductor manufacturing equipment and high-bandwidth memory.

However, Nderu said despite the importation controls, the Asian powerhouse continues to make progress as a big investor.

"China has shown that they can think differently and create real solutions that have an impact and are efficient," he said.

For Africa to catch up with the rest of the world on AI development, he urged universities across the continent to ensure that they equip the youth with highly technical and knowledge skills.

"Here at the university, we have a policy to try and make sure that AI is recognized as a tool that we can use to improve our productivity whether it is in the office operations, research level, or supporting students," he said.