By Mustapha Salisu
Participants at the 6th Kano Social Influencers summit organised by the Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD), have called for the deployment of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to address menace of corruption at all tiers of government stressing the importance of responsible use and acceptance of AI.
The summit with the theme ‘Towards a more inclusive Governance of AI’ and holding between Wednesday and Thursday at Khalifa Isyaka Rabiu University (KHAIRUN) Kano, attracted participants from academia, civil society organisations, regulators and the general populace.
Chair Board of Centre for Information Technology and Development CITAD Board of Trustees and Pioneer Chief executive of Nigeria Communications Commission NCC, His Royal Highness Eze Ogbonna Ironmantu represented by Chief Nmezi Oguadinma said AI usage is gaining momentum in the country asking the participants to provide a clear understanding of how AI works.
He also suggested AI deployment to address some of the problems militating against rapid development in the country.
The summit he said should discuss “How can we deploy AI to deal with corruption at various tiers of government, can AI be deployed in the evaluation of tenders or in the process of law-making? Can the process of recruitment be made more transparent through AI?
In a presentation on Striking a balance between Data needs for AI training and Privacy protection, National commissioner, National Data Protection Board represented by Abdulmalik Jamo said while AI harvest data made available to it, Data privacy is the ability of individual to control his information, noting that the key challenge of AI is collecting row data during interaction without consent or knowledge of the user and share same for profits.
He said robust governance, federated learning, privacy design, policy and governance, stakeholders engagement and regulations enforcement are critical to striking a balance between AI and Data protection.
In his presentation on Disinformation Deepfake and AI: their implications for Media and Public, Dr Bala Muhammad from the Department of Mass Communication Bayero University Kano said information disorder is an anomaly that if not cured can eventually kill its victims, adding that media literacy is needed to deal with disinformation.
“AI can do things which human intelligence does. Deepfake is a video in which the face of a person is altered or manipulated is the driving force behind Deepfake, manipulated videos or voices but at the same time it is the AI that can be used to dismantle such Deepfakes,” said Muhammad.
He said multi-stakeholder approach, public awareness and media literacy are some of the strategies for mitigating negative usage of AI.
Kano State commissioner for information Ibrahim Wayya warned against abuse of freedom of expression on social media saying the advent of AI is complementing human endeavours through Technological advancement and the state government is ready to embrace the changes digital technology has brought to propel growth.
Professor Tunde Akanni of the Lagos State University chaired the first plenary. Professor Jibrin Ibrahim, a senior fellow at the Centre for Democracy and Development CDD chaired the second plenary with the topic; Ethical considerations in the deployment and governance of AI.