As the use of artificial intelligence (AI) accelerates, the world is stepping into a new epoch − one as impactful as the industrial revolution, if not more.
Yet AI governance is not keeping pace with the advancement of this equally powerful and perilous technology.
This global gap presents an interesting question: Could Africa, with its unique demographic, economic and technological context, emerge as a leader in AI governance? The opportunity exists − but whether Africa’s tech industry, policymakers and institutions will rise to the occasion is another question.
AI is emerging as a powerful tool to tackle some of the greatest challenges of our time. Used wisely, AI can improve health outcomes, transform education and create previously unimaginable solutions to the existential climate crisis. But even as global innovators explore these applications, bad actors are not far behind.
Though it may seem like a distant memory, it was less than a decade ago that the Cambridge Analytica scandal broke. The British consulting firm was accused of harvesting Facebook users’ personal data via a third-party app. This information was reportedly used to aid Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and influence the Brexit vote in the United Kingdom.
There is a compelling case for Africa to attempt to lead the world in AI regulation.
Notwithstanding the outrage at this breach of data privacy, it hasn’t stopped malevolent actors from refining and perfecting this method. Most recently, a political consultant in New Hampshire, United States, was fined for commissioning an AI-generated voice impersonation of former US president Joe Biden. Alarmingly, the creator of the fake call claimed it took 20 minutes and cost just $1. Such is the scale of the threat AI poses.
This threat is not limited to the realm of political contestation. AI is central to China’s mass surveillance infrastructure, raising serious concerns about human rights − especially privacy.
Similarly, a tool called the Correctional Offender Management Profiling for Alternative Sanctions, deployed in the US to assist judges to determine the recidivism risk, was found to be biased against African-Americans. Meanwhile, a comparable issue arose at Amazon, where an AI recruitment tool that showed bias against women was reportedly scrapped in 2018.
There are similarly alarming developments in the private sector, with significant financial implications for individuals and corporations alike. Voice cloning has reportedly been used to bypass bank security by mimicking customers. There have been cases of scammers replicating the voices of company executives to instruct employees to transfer funds, and others mimicking distressed loved ones urgently asking for help. It’s one thing to ignore a phishing e-mail; quite another to hear a voice you trust in crisis.
Now that these long-predicted threats are no longer hypothetical, the responsibility to act falls not only on governments but − more importantly − on tech industry leaders to accelerate AI safety.
Why this burden should fall on the tech industry is self-evident: they are the only actors with the power and knowledge to implement meaningful safeguards. Most laypeople and policymakers barely understand how to use the technology, let alone how to regulate it.
This is true of nearly every innovation, which is why legislation tends to lag far behind the problems it aims to solve. Add to that the typically sluggish pace of lawmaking, and it’s clear regulation alone won’t keep up with AI’s momentum.
In addition to these external obligations, there are also self-interested reasons for Big Tech to get serious about AI governance. For one, it’s often the companies themselves that attract fines and sanctions when human rights violations surface. In 2024, Apple and Meta were fined $570 million and $228 million, respectively, for breaching the European Union’s Digital Markets Act.
What’s more, tech platforms rely on public trust to drive engagement and, ultimately, revenue. Maintaining that trust means demonstrating ethical leadership. But trust in AI is already starting to crack.
Across the globe, authors have filed lawsuits against AI companies for using their work to train large models without permission. OpenAI, Meta and Microsoft are among those being taken to court. If the extent of AI’s reliance on billions of social media posts for training were widely exposed, it could trigger a similar wave of unprecedented class-action lawsuits. And that’s just the beginning.
In this context, there is a compelling case for Africa to attempt to lead the world in AI regulation. And this is not a theoretical aspiration − it’s grounded in what the continent is already doing in the governance space.
In 2022, the African Union (AU) adopted its Data Policy Framework, designed to guide how African countries govern, share and benefit from data in ways that are ethical, inclusive and development-oriented. While it wasn’t the first framework of its kind, it brought a distinctly African perspective to the global conversation.
Where the European Union, the United States and China have leaned towards sectoral, privacy-centric or state-controlled surveillance models, the AU has opted for a developmental, rights-based approach grounded in public benefit and Pan-African collaboration. This lens adds critical value to a debate that has often been dominated by the Global North.
With adequate investment and support − from the AU, regional blocs and African universities − Africa could make a massive impact on AI governance. We could pioneer a people-first model of technological development that centres on human dignity, not just shareholder profits.
We’ve done it before. Africa has led in other tech-related sectors, most notably in mobile money. By enabling mobile-based financial transactions, African innovators helped bring financial inclusion to millions of unbanked people. Today, Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for 70% of the world’s mobile money transactions, even as adoption picks up in South and Southeast Asia as well as Latin America.
Africa has played a pivotal role before, and it holds the potential to drive meaningful change on a global scale once more. But realising that ambition demands courage, vision and action from the continent’s tech leaders.
We have something to offer the world − a unique lens that can shape how humanity navigates the AI age. But our contribution will only matter if we can move with courage, purpose and urgency to meet the moment.
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