Chatbot Programmes’ ‘Arms Race’: Africa and Artificial Intelligence (AI) Ethics

This paper argues that the AI revolution which is currently unfolding and being fuelled by the significant strides in Generative AI-powered technologies, calls for an urgent response by the African continent, to ensure that possible harms associated with this cutting-edge technology are mitigated. The ‘arms race’ to create chatbots that can rival Open AI’s ChatGPT-4.0 technology by big technology companies such as Google and Meta, is not only hastening the pace of the AI revolution but is also bringing to the fore the double-edged nature of this technology. The benefits of AI generative technologies such as chatbots in fields such as the academy; health; agriculture; music and art, have been touted in recent times, but the ethical concerns around issues of bias; possible proliferation of misinformation from algorithms that are trained on datasets that are not fully representative of the global South’s realities, especially Africa; breaches in privacy issues and threats of job losses, still linger. The fact that in March 2023, an Elon Musk-led petition to have a six-month moratorium on AI chatbot innovations began circulating raises serious ethical concerns around the AI revolution, which makes it critical for a continent such as Africa, which has largely been a consumer of these technologies and notan innovator, to urgently draft measures that can protect it. The paper contends that even though Africa is not homogenous in nature, it needs to come up with an AI ethics-driven framework that protects the majority of its population which is mired in poverty and likely to be on the receiving end of any cons associated with AI technologies. This framework should be largely anchored in the African philosophy of Ubuntu, but also pragmatic enough to include positive facets of global-North philosophical strands such as deontology, which largely places currency on ethical principles and rules above the outcomes they produce.