The new institute will include projects such as AI for the mining industry, the construction of a large government data cloud, AI for motor industry infrastructure enhancements, modernising public services, digital farming and AI-enhanced food production.

In his book, The Fourth Industrial Revolution, the founder of the World Economic Forum Klaus Schwab provides an insightful perspective on the 4IR when he writes: "Technology is not an exogenous force over which we have no control. We are not constrained by a binary choice between 'accept and live with it' and 'reject and live without it'. Instead, take dramatic technological change as an invitation to reflect about who we are and how we see the world. The more we think about how to harness the technology revolution, the more we will examine ourselves and the underlying social models that these technologies embody and enable, and the more we will have an opportunity to shape the revolution in a manner that improves the state of the world."

With the establishment of the Presidential Commission on the 4IR (PC4IR) in 2019, South Africa acknowledged the all-encompassing significance of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) and its disruptive effect on technology, industry and society at large....