1.
A.I. in Africa:
Perspectives and Challenges
By
Rockefeller, Data Scientist
Douala, 19 September 2020
In partnership with

2.
Outline
●
What is Artificial Intelligence? and/or Data Science?
●
Why the hype around it nowadays?
●
How Top Companies are using it?
●
Some (local) success stories
●
Good and Evil Sides of AI
●
Get to Machine Learning, Deep Learning and
Reinforcement Learning
●
Where is Africa on the map of AI?

3.
Who am I?
●
Data Scientist
●
Member of the Data Science Research Group, AIMS,
Capetown, South Africa
●
Member of the Data Science for Social Impact,
University of Pretoria
●
Interested in AI applied to Renewable Energy
●
Has worked on several projects on AI applied to
Banking, Insurances, Administration

4.
Facts about A.I. … good ones
1
The Nation that leads in A.I. will be
the ruler of the world, Vladimir
Putin, RT, 2017
2
3 4
As a technologist, I see how AI as
the fourth industrial revolution will
impact every aspect of people’s
lives.” – Fei-Fei Li , Professor of
Computer Science at Stanford
University.
“The coming era of Artificial
Intelligence will not be the era of
war, but be the era of deep
compassion, non-violence, and
love.” Amit Ray, Compassionate
Artificial Intelligence
“Our intelligence is what makes
us human, and AI is an extension
of that quality.” – Yann LeCun
Professor, New York University

5.
Facts about A.I. … good alerting ones
1
“The development of A.I. could spell the
end of the human race….We couldn’t
compete because we are limited our slow
biological evolution.” Stephen Hawking,
BBC
2
3 4“A.I. doesn’t have to be evil to destroy
humanity – if A.I. has a goal and
humanity comes in the way, it will
destroy it without even thinking about it,
no hard feelings.” Elon Musk,
“A.I. will probably most likely lead
to the end of the world, but in the
meantime, there'll be great
companies.” –Sam Altman
"Success in creating A.I. would be the
biggest event in human history.
Unfortunately, it might also be the last,
unless we learn how to avoid the risks."
-- Stephen Hawking, BBC

6.
Just…
A. I.Artificial Intelligence

7.
It’s simply
A set of computerized system that is able to process
huge amount of data and extract patterns from them
En français
Un ensemble de systèmes informatiques capable de
brasser une quantité de données importante et de
détecter des tendances.

8.
It’s simply
A set of computerized system that is able to process huge
amount of DATAand extract patterns from them
En français
Un ensemble de systèmes informatiques capable de brasser
une quantité de DONNÉES importantes et de détecter des
tendances.

9.
To start...
At the beginning there was

10.
To start...
At the beginning there was
DATA

11.
The question is….
What is
DATA ?

12.
What is Data?
In computing, data is just a piece of information that
can be translated into a form that is efficient for
processing
Ex:
● A signal from a sensor
● A file in your computer
● A log file
From the mighty Geek!

13.
What is Data?
In statistics, data is the result of an observation
conducted on a population
Ex:
● Number of participants in the room,
● Amount of females Covid-19 Cases in LaQuintinie Hospital,
● Daily Temperature during the rainy season
Sometimes, We count people
to make money

14.
What is Data?
In social sciences, data is the starting point of a
argument where the end point is the
achievement of some purpose.
Ex:
● Quotes from great authors,
● An item in the Penal Code
● Verses from the Bible
How convincing
do you sound?

15.
What is Data?
In (digital) marketing, data is any piece of
information that could turn a prospect into a client.
Ex:
● Number of Ads displayed on client’s timeline per day
● Emails, personal information from clients
● Number of clicks on your page by customers from a certain location
● Number of customers that made a purchase on your e-commerce website per hour
Subscribe to our page!!!

16.
The link...
Collected Measured
Observed Recorded
Visualized
1
2 5
4
3

17.
An unified definition….
DATA is anything that can be
observed, collected , recorded,
analyzed and
visualized.

18.
Some interesting facts...
400 hours of videos
uploaded every
minute
Four millions of Google
searches every
minute

19.
Some interesting facts...
Three millions posts
uploaded every
minute
An average of 350.000
Tweets every minute

20.
Some local examples...
R.I.P.

21.
Data: from scarcity to deluge
W
eather

22.
Data: from scarcity to deluge
W
eather
Bio-Informatics

23.
Data: from scarcity to deluge
W
eather
CCTV and Military
Bio-Informatics

24.
Data: from scarcity to deluge
Social Media
W
eather
CCTV and Military
Bio-Informatics

25.
Data: from scarcity to deluge
Social Media
W
eather
CCTV and Military
Bio-Informatics
G
enom
ics

26.
Data: from scarcity to deluge
Social Media
W
eather
CCTV and Military
Finance and
Banking
Bio-Informatics
G
enom
ics

27.
Data: from scarcity to deluge
Social Media
W
eather
Physics and
Cosmology
CCTV and Military
Finance and
Banking
Bio-Informatics
G
enom
ics

28.
When you think straight...
At the heart of A.I.there is ...

29.
When you think straight...
At the heart of A.I.there is ...
Data Science

30.
Then, what is Data Science?
It’s the study of
Data
Epicetout

31.
How about this Venn Diagram?

32.
When you think straight...
At the heart of Data Sciencethere is ...

33.
When you think straight...
At the heart of Data Sciencethere is ...
Machine Learning
Apprentissage Machine

34.
What is Machine Learning?

35.
Think of that Machine Learning as...
It’s a method of data analysis that automates analytical
model building. Using algorithms that iteratively learn from
data, machine learning allows computers to find hidden
insights without being explicitly programmed where to look.
M thodes statistiques qui permettent aux machineséthodes statistiques qui permettent aux machines
d’apprendre d’elles m mes des donn es qu’elles re oiventêmes des données qu’elles reçoivent éthodes statistiques qui permettent aux machines çoivent
sans tre explicitement programm esêmes des données qu’elles reçoivent éthodes statistiques qui permettent aux machines

36.
An A.I. Venn Diagram

37.
What people think AI is...

38.
What AI actually is...

39.
How Top Companies are using Data Science
Improves the guest experience by
using Data Science to classify images
and detect objects at scale
Is using Data Science to extract
information from their satellite images
and deliver valuable insights to their
clients
Uses Data Science to enable proof-
of-purchase of their products
Data Science powers almost
everything at Google: Gmail, search,
translate, Assistant, etc

40.
How African Companies are using Data Science
Uses Data Science to recommend the
best Data Deals and Call packages for
each of you
Uses Data Science to link any job
seeker or interested party on their
website with the suitable (job)
announcement
Uses Data Science to predict the
suitable package for their insured
clients
connect organizations with thriving
African data science community to
solve the world’s most pressing
challenges using machine learning
and AI.

41.
Some Milestones… in the deployment process
Used Natural Language Processing techniques to
build a Chatbot that can dialogue with companies
when they need information about legal
registration
Uses Machine Learning to help the
company know their clients better and
to predict customer attrition
Uses Supervised learning
techniques to predict the death and
birth cases in Limbe City Council
Uses financial records (purchase
activity) of clients to predict their
credit-worthiness

42.
Like anything in life there are….
GOOD AND BAD
sides of
A.I.

43.
A.I. in HealthCare
● Assist pathologists in making
more accurate diagnoses
● Diagnose potentially deadly
blood diseases at a very early
stage.
● Finding better candidates for
development drugs

44.
Conversational Agents or Chatbots
Automation of Customer
Services
● Digital Marketing
● Banks , Insurance
● Improvement of Customer
Relationship Management
● Personal Use (Siri, Alexa, etc)

45.
Identify Fraud Detection
● Detect suspicious transactions in
almost real-time and alerting banks
● Pishing Scams: Alerting an user
about a untrusted email
● False Insurance Claims
● using bio-metric security features
(fingerprint, retina scan, facial
recognition) to authenticate an
account

46.
Creative A.I.
● Music: Creation of most innovative
beats or lyrics (tailored for a
specific style)
● Art: Continuing with the legacy or
Da Vinci, Picasso, with
customized drawing, etc)
● Completing of missing pieces
(Movie, drawing, literature)

47.
Bad sides of A.I. ?

48.
Job Losses??
● 40% of the world’s jobs will be
lost to automation in the next
15 years.
● AI is able to write articles,
interview people better than
human beings
● Autonomous driving
technology will make the
Driver profession disappear

49.
To be careful about!!!!
DEEP
FAKE

50.
Regulations of A.I. …. Ethics , privacy
ETHICS PRIVACY

51.
Why should we look into A.I.?
Data Science or A.I. is poised to change everything about an
organization, any organization:
●
its potential customers
●
its expansion plans,
●
its engineering and manufacturing process,
●
how it chooses and interacts with suppliers, and more.
Huge availability of data out there
Cheap accessibility to data (thanks to countless devices)

52.
Facts about African Companies
●
Shortage of Data Scientist in Africa
●
Some Africa-based Companies claim to do it but don't even know what it is
●
Companies need you to demonstrate how could you uncover insights from
their data to invest on data science
●
Startups could integrate a data science component to their projects to
skyrocket it
●
Government workers could learn how to improve their data analysis skills to
advance their career
●
Professionals could target more jobs with a Data Science skill

53.
Thank you.