- Wits University
The Director of Wits University’s MIND Institute to head a panel of independent experts in AI research, law and governance.
Communications and Digital Technologies Minister Solly Malatsi appointed Professor Benjamin Rosman and an advisory panel of experts to assist in formulating South Africa’s national policy on artificial intelligence (AI).
This comes after Malatsi withdrew the draft National AI Policy following a News24 report that several academic journals cited in the document were ‘fictitious’. Malatsi said a new draft policy needs to be based on the ‘best available evidence and align with South Africa’s priorities’.
Rosman echoes this, saying the first priority is “to make sure the policy is grounded in strong evidence and in the realities of South Africa. This means we need to look carefully at where AI could have the greatest positive impact and where the risks are most serious, and what institutional capacity we need to govern and use these technologies as well”.
“For me, the policy has to be three things at once: protect people from real harms, enable innovation and economic growth, and build long-term national capability. If we only regulate, we miss the opportunity, but if we only chase innovation, we may deepen inequality or create new risks. So the challenge for us is to get that balance right.”
He adds that it is vital to ensure that the process of drafting a national AI policy is consultative and draws on expertise from research, industry, civil society, law, labour and the public sector.
Rosman, who heads the Wits Machine Intelligence and Neural Discovery (MIND) Institute and is a professor in the School of Computational and Applied Mathematics (CSAM) at Wits University, will be joined by: Professor Vukosi Marivate, Dr Tshepo Feela, Dr Jabu Mtsweni, Professor Alison Gillwald, Advocate Lufuno Tshikalange and Heather Irvine.
Says Rosman: “It’s both a privilege and a great responsibility to have been chosen for this role. I’ve spent so much of my career thinking about how South Africa and Africa can participate meaningfully in the future of AI. The major risk is that we become only consumers of AI systems that are built elsewhere: built for other societies, optimised for their economies, and governed according to their priorities”.
He believes South Africa and Africans need to contribute to the science, governance, and application of AI. To do this, “we need to build the capacities to enable us to build AI ourselves. This means that the skills, infrastructure, research, innovation and governance need to understand our constitutional values and our social realities,” he adds.
An AI ecosystem is vital for success
Wits University plays an important role in the future of AI in South Africa and Africa by bringing together several parts of the AI ecosystem.
Says Rosman: “Wits has very deep technical expertise in many areas of AI, machine learning, robotics and autonomous systems. We have interdisciplinary strength through the Wits MIND Institute, which brings together computer science, neuroscience, psychology, philosophy, ethics, law and humanities.”
“We also have a long-standing commitment to building African AI capacity through postgraduate training, research leadership and networks such as the Deep Learning Indaba.”
- Also read Professor Benjamin Rosman’s views on algorithmic sovereignty
- Biography of Professor Benjamin Rosman
- Visit https://www.wits.ac.za/future/ for more AI news at Wits University