Today, at 8:20 am on SAFM, our Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies unpacked a bit about SA’s AI Institute.

Minister Khumbudzo Ntshavheni recently announced that her Department co-founded the AI Institute with the Johannesburg Business School of the University of Johannesburg and the Tshwane University of Technology.

The AI institute has been an ongoing project led by the Department and the President’s Commission on the Fourth Industrial Revolution (PC4IR). So, we’re excited to hear how it’s been progressing.

In this post, I report on her thoughts.

The purposes of SA’s AI Institute

According to the Minister, the Department is establishing the AI institute mainly to:

  • enhance the teaching of robotics and coding in public schools; and
  • bridge the digital divide.

Thoughts from the Minister

Here are some of the Minister’s thoughts she expressed at the G20 Digital Economy Ministers Meeting in Bali, Indonesia:

It is essential that we invest significantly to provide our youth with access to modern training, skill sets and formal education. To achieve this, our Department of Basic Education has introduced robotics and coding as school subjects in primary and high schools.

At present, learners in over a 1 000 schools are designing and producing robots both for gaming and to complete tasks the learners find tedious for human completion.

Next year, learners in these and additional schools that will join this category will compete in a National Robotics Development Challenge.

The Minister added that the government’s aim to enhance digital skills includes creating platforms to support and promote the youth and startups’ ability to develop digital content.

My thoughts

It’s been nearly 4 years since the first mention of the SA’s AI Institute in the PC4IR report and in Prof Tshilidwi Marwala’s book, “Closing the Gap”. So, the process of establishing the Institute has been slow. However, I acknowledge that the government has faced many pandemic-related challenges over the past few years.

Personally, I’d like to know more information:

  • Who will run the AI Institute?
  • What strategy will the Institute follow since we don’t have a national AI strategy, policy, or regulation?
  • Will the Institute adopt a multidisciplinary collaboration between various departments and disciplines?
  • How will the Institute be funded?
  • Is the Institute aligned with Africa’s vision for a single digital economy?

Until we have answers, we’re all in the dark (and this time, it’s not Eskom’s fault).