November 02, 2023
Ethiopia: Whose Job Will AI Replace? Here's Why a Clerk in Ethiopia Has More to Fear Than One in California
Artificial intelligence is changing the world - and one of the main areas it will affect in the short-to-medium term is the workforce. Read more »
Africa: Social Media Content in Times of War - An Expert Guide On How to Keep Violence Off Your Feeds
Social media platforms are a great source of information and entertainment. They also help us to maintain contact with friends and family. But social media can also - and has,… Read more »
October 23, 2023
Africa: How Much Time Do Kids Spend On Devices - Playing Games, Watching Videos, Texting and Using the Phone?
Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you'd like an expert to answer, send it to curiouskidsus@theconversation.com. Read more »
October 24, 2023
Africa: In Times of War, Digital Activism Has Power. Here's How to Engage Responsibly
As armed conflict continues to play out in the Israel-Gaza war, a separate battle is raging to control the narrative being presented to the world. Read more »
October 16, 2023
Africa: Traditional Farming Knowledge Should Be Stored for Future Use
Indigenous knowledge and traditional practices have played a critical role in development all over the world. For centuries, various disciplines ranging from medicine to… Read more »
September 19, 2023
Africa: Chatbots for Medical Advice - Three Ways to Avoid Misleading Information
We expect medical professionals to give us reliable information about ourselves and potential treatments so that we can make informed decisions about which (if any) medicine or… Read more »
September 07, 2023
Africa: AI-Narrated Audiobooks Are Here - and They Raise Some Serious Ethical Questions
Meet Madison and Jackson, the AI narrators or "digital voices" soon to be reading some of the audiobooks on Apple Books. They sound nothing like Siri or Alexa or the voice telling… Read more »
August 30, 2023
Africa: Giraffes Range Across Diverse Habitats - We're Using GPS, Satellites and Statistics to Track and Protect Them
Nearly 6,000 years ago, our ancestors climbed arid rocky outcrops in what is now the Nigerian Sahara and carved spectacularly intricate, larger-than-life renditions of giraffes… Read more »
August 24, 2023
Africa: For Minorities, Biased AI Algorithms Can Damage Almost Every Part of Life
Bad data does not only produce bad outcomes. It can also help to suppress sections of society, for instance vulnerable women and minorities. Read more »
August 21, 2023
Africa: Beginning of the End - How Elon Musk's Removal of the Block Function On X Could Trigger Its Hellish Demise
On Saturday, X (formerly Twitter) chairman Elon Musk tweeted he would be removing the microblogging platform's block function. It would remain intact for direct messages, but would… Read more »
August 14, 2023
Africa: 3 Ways AI Is Transforming Music
Each fall, I begin my course on the intersection of music and artificial intelligence by asking my students if they're concerned about AI's role in composing or producing music. Read more »
August 15, 2023
Ghana: Mobile Money in Ghana Isn't All Good News - Customers Are Paying a Hefty Price
Fintechs, notably mobile money, have transformed banking and finance in developing and emerging economies in Africa and beyond. Financial technology (better known as fintech) is… Read more »
August 09, 2023
Kenya: Kenya Is Going Digital to Boost Tax Revenue - There Are Lessons to Learn From Other African Countries
Many African tax authorities have weak capacity to raise revenue. From 1990 to 2020, sub-Saharan African countries on average collected only about 12%-15% of GDP as taxes, a much… Read more »
August 07, 2023
Africa: Computer Science Can Help Farmers Explore Alternative Crops and Sustainable Farming Methods
Humans have physically reconfigured half of the world's land to grow just eight staple crops: maize (corn), soy, wheat, rice, cassava, sorghum, sweet potato and potato. They… Read more »
July 31, 2023
Africa: 3 Ways Higher Education Can Become More Hopeful in the Post-Pandemic, Post-AI Era
We live at a time when universities and colleges are facing multiplying crises, pressures and changes. Read more »
Africa: Cyber Governance in Africa Is Weak. Taking the Malabo Convention Seriously Would Be a Good Start
_Several African countries are pursuing digital transformation ambitions - applying new technologies to enhance the development of society. But concerns exist over the absence of… Read more »
July 25, 2023
Africa: Computer-Written Scripts and Deepfake Actors - What's At the Heart of the Hollywood Strikes Against Generative AI
For the first time in 60 years, the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) are simultaneously facing off against the Alliance of Motion Picture and… Read more »
Africa: Record Technostress and Reduced Well-Being Show That Remote Working Isn't as Good as we Thought
At the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic, at least 557 million workers were forced to work from home. Read more »
July 17, 2023
Africa: Actors Are Demanding That Hollywood Catch Up With Technological Changes in a Sequel to a 1960 Strike
For the first time since 1960, actors and screenwriters are on strike at the same time. Read more »
July 19, 2023
Nigeria: eNaira - Nigeria's Digital Currency Has Had a Slow Start - What's Holding It Back
Nigeria was the first country in Africa to roll out a central bank digital currency. The eNaira was launched in October 2021. Read more »
July 17, 2023
Africa: Technology Can Boost Farming, But It Can Also Threaten Biodiversity - How to Balance the Two
Cultivating one hectare of maize used to be an arduous task for Precious Banda, a farmer in Zambia. It would take her hundreds of hours to prepare her land before sowing and to… Read more »
July 12, 2023
Cote d'Ivoire: Côte d'Ivoire Is Launching Its First Satellite for Earth Observation - and It's Locally Made
Côte d'Ivoire has announced plans to launch its first satellite within the next two years. A team of scientists in the fields of astrophysics and geology tell The… Read more »
July 05, 2023
Africa: AI Is an Existential Threat - Just Not the Way You Think
The rise of ChatGPT and similar artificial intelligence systems has been accompanied by a sharp increase in anxiety about AI. For the past few months, executives and AI safety… Read more »
June 23, 2023
Africa: The Folly of Making Art With Text-to-Image Generative AI
Making art using artificial intelligence isn't new. It's as old as AI itself. Read more »
June 27, 2023
Nigeria: Mobile Money System Has Dark Side Even Though It's Convenient - New Study Explores Risks
Financial services play vital roles in supporting economic activities. In Nigeria, though, a significant number of people don't have access to essential banking services. Read more »