African countries should resolve fundamental issues to benefit from AI

African countries must resolve fundamental issues in education, housing, and poverty eradication to take advantage of the opportunities presented by the development of artificial intelligence, CEO of the Continental Secretariat of the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) of the African Union, Ambassador Marie-Antoinette Rose Quatre, said at the UN Governance Innovation Summit, Report informs.

According to her, over the next 14 years, Africa needs to accelerate its pace of development, increase efficiency, and transition from discussing problems to the practical implementation of solutions.

The head of the APRM secretariat emphasized that African countries continue to lag behind their targeted development goals. Among the reasons, she cited the colonial legacy, economic disparities, insufficient integration into global value chains, as well as policy mistakes.

"I believe that we have failed to achieve the set goals precisely because of policy mistakes. And we need to openly discuss this issue," she stated.

Marie-Antoinette Rose Quatre also expressed concern that Africa might once again miss out on opportunities related to technological progress, particularly the development of artificial intelligence, if it does not address existing fundamental problems.

"How can we make a leap into the future if we have not yet solved even fundamental problems? How can we look to the future if we are not addressing issues such as housing provision, poverty alleviation, and access to basic necessities?" she said.

She added that in order to prepare for technological changes, it is necessary to ensure universal access to education and create conditions to form a generation ready for the challenges of the future.