AI 4 Afrika

How can we fundamentally disrupt colonialism’s enduring institutional legacies? How can we reimagine laws and institutions to center the needs of African creators and innovators so that a greater share of the benefits of the digital economy can stay within Africa? Join Funmi Arewa in an interview by Dr. Jasmine Blanks Jones as they explore these questions and dissect Arewa’s new book, “Disrupting Africa: Technology, Law, and Development”. Tune in for a groundbreaking conversation demonstrating how lawmaking and legal processes during and after colonialism continue to frame contexts in which digital technologies are created, implemented, regulated, and used in Africa today.

An interdisciplinary brainstorm of the future of capital in 2121. How will cryptocurrency and NFTs impact the definition of wealth, and how could this lead to economic prosperity for the Global Africa? Featured Speakers:  Nana Opoku: Speculative Visual Artist and Designer. Adrian Kennedy: Co-founder of The Minters Collective, an NFT platform for artists. Alex Tsado: Transformational Speaker and Futurist Designboyxyz: Pakistani-American artist, activist, and polymath based in California.  00:00 - Intro 4:55 - How can AI, cryptocurrency, and NFTs impact the future of wealth in 100 years from now? 11:21 - What issues are lowering the impact of decentralized currency today? 17:32 - What are the biggest obstacles to the adoption of cryptocurrency right now? 20:35 - How can these technologies be shaped to fit African creations and content? 27:17 - Should African countries be developing and mining cryptocurrency? 29:00 What is possible with NFTs? 33:00 - What are the most interesting developments happening now in NFTs and Blockchain technology? 43:00 - What are the most pressing issues in the emerging technologies that impacting currency? 1:05:00 - Final remarks

An interdisciplinary brainstorm on the intersection of the embodied arts and AI, with a special interest in how the embodied arts may help humans evolve in the year 2121. With conversation reimagines how the human body can, will, and should move 100 years from now, how technologies like artificial intelligence can help facilitate this evolution, and how the embodied arts can ultimately uplift and serve the global Africa.  Featuring Dr. S. Ama Wray, Grisha Coleman, Qudus Onikeku, Tawanda Chabikwa

Explore what education looks like today, and how technologies like artificial intelligence are going to shape the future of education in 10 years, 50 years, and 100 years from now. Featured Speakers: Dr. Phillip Eaglin: Founder of Changing Expectations, a nonprofit that provides STEM programs for K-12 teachers and students in underserved communities in Texas. Jovan Rebolledo Mendez: Researcher, innovator, and inventor working to bring the intersection between AI with new technologies / improving AI accessibility to new fields, while applying exponential technologies in solving global grand challenges. Dr. Jasmine L. Blanks Jones: A dynamic theater nonprofit leader, award-winning educator, and holds a dual PhD in Education and Africana Studies from the University of Pennsylvania. Founder of Burning Barriers Building Bridges Youth Theater (B4YT), providing support for artists aspiring to create positive change through their performance. Alex Tsado: Founder of Alliance of Africa’s Intelligence, ensuring African innovations get the chance to change millions of lives, and its people across the world are never again left behind during industrial revolutions. In this episode: 00:00 — Intro 6:40 — In what ways do you foresee education being different in 20 years from now? 14:20 — How can technologies like artificial intelligence provide opportunity for growth in education? 35:25 — How is AI technology being used in education throughout the African continent? 42:05 — Why is it vital to be a lifelong learner, now more than ever? 1:02:10 — What is the most radical future of education that you see? 1:04:00 — How can we create robots that can facilitate more robust conversations across difference? 1:10:35 — How can AI assistants help fill the void of human-to-human contact left by remote learning in the time of COVID? 1:12:00 — Closing

This is an interdisciplinary brainstorm of the future of humans in 2121. Existing in a world with artificially intelligent beings, what is the role of humans one hundred years from now? Featured Speakers: Abran Maldonado, Entrepreneur, scholar and music industry veteran. CEO & Founder of the tech startup NuSkool https://createlabs.io/ Kishau Rogers, Technology Entrepreneur using computer science, systems thinking, and common sense to create intelligent human-centered solutions. Founder & CEO of Time Study. https://www.timestudy.co/ Anatola Araba, Storyteller, content creator, and futurist. Creator of Afro Algorithms, a 3D animated short film about AI and bias, and journalist at Hearst Magazines. http://www.anatolaaraba.com/ Tawanda Chabikwa, Interdisciplinary artist-scholar who’s work revolve around Black and Africana dance practices, practice-based research, and creative collaboration. https://www.embodiology.com/ What we discuss in this episode: 00:00 - Intro 6:36 - In what ways will roles formerly held by humans, be replaced by AI? 18:08 - In what ways will humans be strengthened by AI? 27:00 - Is there anything that should be off-limits to AI? 35:00 - Is it moral to bring back humans who have passed through AI? 38:00 - How data can recreate humans living and non-living. 59:00 - Is it dangerous to re-incarnate people through AI? 1:06:00 - How bringing back historical figures can lead to a breakthrough in education 1:07 - How can AI make us more human?