, ENG3702 Assignment 03 – Unique number: 659400
Section A
Topic I chose:
‘Artificial Intelligence and the African Context’
Okay so this is my planning page. I went back to the Session 10 question and just started
dumping ideas using the methods from Session 11.
Brainstorm / Listing (messy first thoughts)
AI in Africa feels like another form of colonialism sometimes
Who owns the data? Big tech companies mostly from outside Africa
Training data is mostly Western so African faces, languages, accents don’t work well
People talk about “leapfrogging” with AI but a lot of places still don’t even have
stable electricity or internet
English is still the main language of most AI tools – what about our local languages?
Some African countries are trying (Rwanda, Kenya, SA) but is it real power or just
following the global script?
Discourse of “AI for good” / “development” can hide the power imbalance
Young people excited about AI jobs but also scared of job losses
Need African voices in how these systems are designed and regulated
Questions I asked myself (Questioning method)
Who benefits the most? Who is left out? How is Africa spoken about in AI articles and
policies? Why does the language always sound like Africa is “catching up”?
Main clusters that emerged
1. Power / digital colonialism
2. Access and inequality (infrastructure + literacy)
3. Representation and language bias
Section A
Topic I chose:
‘Artificial Intelligence and the African Context’
Okay so this is my planning page. I went back to the Session 10 question and just started
dumping ideas using the methods from Session 11.
Brainstorm / Listing (messy first thoughts)
AI in Africa feels like another form of colonialism sometimes
Who owns the data? Big tech companies mostly from outside Africa
Training data is mostly Western so African faces, languages, accents don’t work well
People talk about “leapfrogging” with AI but a lot of places still don’t even have
stable electricity or internet
English is still the main language of most AI tools – what about our local languages?
Some African countries are trying (Rwanda, Kenya, SA) but is it real power or just
following the global script?
Discourse of “AI for good” / “development” can hide the power imbalance
Young people excited about AI jobs but also scared of job losses
Need African voices in how these systems are designed and regulated
Questions I asked myself (Questioning method)
Who benefits the most? Who is left out? How is Africa spoken about in AI articles and
policies? Why does the language always sound like Africa is “catching up”?
Main clusters that emerged
1. Power / digital colonialism
2. Access and inequality (infrastructure + literacy)
3. Representation and language bias
