Alphabet Incs unit Google said that it would open a Google AI research centre in Accra, Ghana later this year
The search engine giant currently has 11 other such research centres in Paris, Zurich, Tokyo, Beijing, Montreal, Toronto, Seattle, Cambridge/Boston, Tel Aviv/Haifa, New York, and its Mountain View/San Francisco headquarters.
"AI has great potential to positively impact the world, and more so if the world is well represented in the development of new AI technologies. So it makes sense to us that the world should be well represented in the development of AI," Jeff Dean, senior fellow, Google AI, and Moustapha Cisse, staff research scientist and lead of Google AI Center Accra, said in a company blog post.
According to the blog post, 10mn African will benefit from a digital skills training program, which 2 million have already completed.
Tech majors such as Google, Apple, Microsoft, Uber and Baidu have been making large investments in advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence.
According to reports, in 2016 alone, Google invested US$30bn on AI and machine learning research.
PriceWaterhouseCoopers estimated in a research project that “artificial intelligence technologies could increase global GDP by US$15.7 trillion, a full 14 per cent, by 2030.” Of this, US$1.2 trillion would be for Africa.
