Kenya’s big dream on Artificial Intelligence

The Barcelona Fair

Since 2006, the mobile industry in the world has been converging in Barcelona annually to share the latest innovation and to showcase what, in the minds of major technology firms, is the future of computing. At the Barcelona Arena, over 90,000 attendees were listed, from exhibitors to industry specialists and analysts.

When you arrive at the MWC 2024, the sea of humanity entering and leaving the venue welcomes you. Dozens of counter-manned individuals are responsible for scanning the digital passes assigned at registration that was done in advance. The efficiency of processing the tens of thousands of participants is a spectacle with minimal hitches or errors.

The Congress is a mix of events, conferences, keynote speeches, and hundreds of exhibitions by leading tech firms, primarily from China, America, and other Western and East Asian countries.

It is rare to find an African exhibition stand, but from time to time you are likely to meet a citizen of Africa who has caught interest in some exhibition.

Halls of Tech

The MWC venue has eight halls, huge enough for one hall to suffice in hosting a major conference in Nairobi. The enormity of investment in the exhibition halls alone is evident. From the high walls that define corporations and the sophisticated lighting that keeps the eyes glued; to the almost unbelievable technological innovations on display,.

Through the eight halls of technology, the future of artificial intelligence towers over everything else. A term that is gaining popularity in Kenya with limited comprehension. In Barcelona, the tech world displays its imagination of an intelligent world. 

In one stand, for instance, by Huawei, a global provider of ICT infrastructure and smart devices, there is an array of services on display. In one of the zones dubbed the “Ubiquitous Connectivity”, there is an unmanned car that is meant for the delivery of goods.

The technology is such that the vehicle can manoeuvre the streets of an urban area from stores to homes or offices. It has been programmed to follow normal traffic rules, to stop when the traffic lights require it to do so and to slow down when there is obstruction, until it reaches the customer.

Smart Mobility 

Next to the unmanned delivery car is a smart car labelled 5.5G. The car integrates a user’s lifestyle with smart controls for their home and work. From the car’s dashboard, a rider is able to draw curtains in their living room or even switch house lights on or off.

The car’s technology has the capacity to warn the driver of objects on the road, with instructions to slow down or accelerate. The vehicle’s software is programmed to scan traffic and advise on faster routes for the driver. An attendant at the Huawei stand told Citizen Digital that the vehicle is already being tested in Shanghai, China.

"We're rapidly approaching an intelligent world," said Li Peng, Huawei's Corporate Senior Vice President and President of ICT Sales & Service. "As the demands on networks have increased, 5.5G has become a key step on the path to the intelligent world. 5.5G is expected to enter commercial use in 2024. So, let's build today's networks for tomorrow's applications to advance the intelligent world."

Artificial Intelligence

Most exhibitors ranging from Microsoft, IBM, Samsung, Xiaomi, Ericsson and others, are all making their pitch to be better placed to advance artificial intelligence into the future. They display prototypes in media and entertainment, transport configuration and management, education and teaching, as well as human interaction through AI-driven translation tools.

The potential offered by the promise of advancement of AI is impressive but the heavy lifting required is the bigger task. Huawei estimates that with AI, firms will require at least 180 billion terabytes of data storage capacity every year.

And as the Mobile World reimagines and reinvents, the perception back in Kenya is upbeat, at least according to the government. “We are not far off from the leaders in the industry, we are on the high trajectory,” says Eliud Owalo, the ICT Cabinet Secretary.

The Kenyan government has ben championing the agenda of laying 100,000 kilometers of fiber optic cable and putting up 1,450 ICT hubs across the country, in a bid to extend the connectivity and enhance digital skills in the population.

On Tuesday 27 February, Owalo announced that Kenya won the bid to host Transform Africa summit, a continent-wide conference organized by Smart Africa, a 39 member continental organization. Communications Authority Director General David Mugonyi termed the rights a big achievement for Kenya’s strategic positioning. “Transform Africa summit brings together policy makers, innovator and entrepreneurs who are geared towards digital transformation of the continental world. Kenya is honored to host this event,” Mugonyi said.

Worlds Apart

MWC2024 however clearly shows that even though critical, connectivity infrastructure is just a small part of utilizing the promise of technology. We are not being left behind, as Kenya we are very much proactive,” Owalo told Citizen Digital in Barcleona. “[…] What we are doing is to put in place an enabling environment on policy and legislation on how these emerging technologies can be anchored. We recently set up a sector working group to discern emerging issues and emerging technologies and advise us on what to do.” 

Kenya has been priding itself on being a regional ICT hub with a growing population of young techies. Conversations at MWC show that beyond coding and the knowhow, firms and countries must continuously build on their data management capacities, and know how to use the same for progress. Experts, however, warn that despite all the investments and interest in new technologies, a country or society is as safe as the safety of its data.

As the government continues to champion the digitization of services and the building of new data reservoirs, the big test awaits as to the safety and utility of the same, especially in the areas of health, citizen data, and more in the socio-economic sectors.

The MWC2024 curtains close on February 29.