The Trend of Artificial Intelligence Development in Africa and China-Africa Cooperation

Artificial Intelligence (AI) refers to the realization of intelligence such as perception, cognition, and action on machines that compares to or even exceeds that of humans. It can usually be divided into general AI and special AI. The former refers to intelligence that can handle many tasks while the latter refers to AI that reaches human levels in all aspects,  adaptively responds to challenges in the external environment, and completes all tasks that a human can. Globally, in recent years, new AI technologies have made continuous breakthroughs, new business forms have continued to emerge, and new applications have been accelerated. It has become an important driving force for a new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation, and is profoundly changing people’s means of production and lifestyle. It also brings important opportunities for African development and China-Africa cooperation. According to the Global System for Mobile Communications Association, by 2030, artificial intelligence can bring about $2.9 trillion in economic growth of Africa, equivalent to a 3% increase in annual GDP. China is Africa’s largest trading partner. China and Africa are actively expanding innovative cooperation in fields relate to new quality productive forces including artificial intelligence, which is of great significance to promoting Africa’s economic growth and achieving sustainable development. Against the backdrop of the world’s major economies continuing to enhance their strategies of artificial intelligence in Africa and the Global South, China-Africa artificial intelligence cooperation should further improve cooperation mechanisms, innovate R&D technologies, and enhance the ability to participate in global artificial intelligence governance, thereby enriching the connotation of the all-weather China-Africa community with a shared future in the new era.

The Basic Situation of Artificial Intelligence Development in Africa

Since 2008, more and more AI activity groups, academic institutions and enterprises have emerged in Africa. The African Union (AU), African sub-regional organizations and African governments are attaching more and more importance to the development of AI, and their attention and investment are increasing. Against this background, Africa’s AI technology innovation and R&D capabilities have been steadily improving.

First, African regional organizations and African governments actively guide and plan the development of artificial intelligence. The African Union is the oversight and developer of artificial intelligence strategic planning at the African continent level, and has recently released a series of policy documents related to artificial intelligence. In August 2024, the African Union issued its first Continental Artificial Intelligence Strategy, which focuses on the development of artificial intelligence in governance, skills, research and infrastructure, and calls on African Union member states to adopt a unified national approach to cope with the complexity of artificial intelligence-driven changes. In February 2024, the AU Development Agency issued a white paper and roadmap on the regulation and responsible application of artificial intelligence. Previously, the African Union issued the 2063 Agenda, Convention on Cyber Security and Personal Data Protection, The Digital Transformation Strategy for Africa (2020-2030), AU Data Policy Framework and other policy documents, leading the development of artificial intelligence in Africa. African sub-regional organizations also pay close attention to and support the development of artificial intelligence. In June 2024, the Eastern African Sub-regional Forum on Artificial Intelligence adopted the Nairobi Statement on Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Technologies, calling for the establishment of a coordination mechanism to support the implementation of the UNESCO Recommendation on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence.

African countries play a key role in formulating national AI strategies, providing R&D funding support, and establishing innovation centers. The Artificial Intelligence Strategy released by Mauritius in 2018 is the first national-level strategy in Africa . It establishes accountability, ethics, and inclusiveness as guiding principles for AI regulation, aiming to build an AI ecosystem that the public trusts. Kenya has released its national AI strategy in 2019, considering AI and block chain as “key economic and business support technologies” and has launched AI standards in 2024. In recent years, Egypt, Algeria, Benin, Rwanda, Senegal, Nigeria and other countries have also successively formulated a series of AI development strategies and supportive measures, focusing on professional human resource training, scientific and technological innovation, infrastructure construction and public-private cooperation.

Second, Africa’s AI technology R&D capabilities have been steadily improved. More and more African research institutions, universities, enterprises and related private sectors have entered the field of AI R&D and application and have made positive progress. In order to help African countries promote and adopt emerging technologies, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa established Africa’s first AI Research Center in the Republic of Congo in 2022 to study the impact of AI technology, develop related tools, products and services, and promote the development of new technologies in digital infrastructure, finance and other fields. African local AI organizations, such as AI Saturdays Lagos, Data Science Africa, Ghana NLP, etc., also play an important role in training African AI researchers, providing community services, holding conferences and seminars, and publishing results.

Under the influence of internal and external forces, Africa’s artificial intelligence technology innovation and R&D capabilities have steadily improved. From the perspective of specific fields, artificial intelligence applications have benefited Africa in key industries such as medical care, agriculture, manufacturing, education, finance, urban management, water supply, and clean energy , among which agricultural artificial intelligence applications are more prominent. For example, Kenya uses artificial intelligence and satellite image data to assess the health and nutritional value of crops. From the perspective of industrial development, the update speed of artificial intelligence applications in Africa has accelerated, and the number of related applications has increased at an astonishing rate. The Changing Landscape of Africa’s Mobile App Market 2024 released by Data Sparkle, an emerging market data insight platform under Shenzhen Transsion Holdings Co., Ltd., shows that the African mobile application market has grown by 24% year-on-year in 2023, with conversational artificial intelligence as the main direction, and the number of artificial intelligence-related applications in games, photography, efficiency and personalized categories are ones of the largest. From the perspective of technological advancement, the United Nations’ report the Potential of Africa to Capture Technology-Intensive Global Supply Chains believes that Africa is actively building digital and high-tech intensive industries to promote technological progress and innovation. From a country perspective, the report Artificial Intelligence Revolution in Africa: Economic Opportunities and Legal Challenges (2023) released by the Morocco-based Policy Center for the New South shows that South Africa has more than 700 investment companies related to artificial intelligence, Nigeria has at least 450 companies, Kenya ranks first in East Africa with 204 companies, and Tanzania and Uganda have 44 companies each. In 2023, South Africa, Nigeria, Egypt and Kenya are the main destinations for technology venture capital activities, with the four countries accounting for 68% of Africa’s transaction volume and 79% of equity financing.