Morocco and AI Illiteracy Part I
One of the things that got me to pursue my passion for artificial intelligence was the saying of Dr. Andrew Ng back in 2017.
AI is the new electricity.
You might think of it as another quote on the internet, but as you start looking at the wide range of applications and crucial solutions created with AI, the question of using AI or not will be a question of survival for countries and their people.
Especially for us in third world countries where we are still fighting illiteracy and the widespread of miss information, wars will be redefined. A simple deep fake video of a leader voicing controversial opinions would shake the country to its core.
Thus, it has become a crucial task for leaders around the globe to include AI education for young people and add it to the learning material starting from elementary school. And inform people as much as possible about the dangers and importance of this technology in life.
As for Morocco, it is still 12 years behind in teaching its people computer science in general. But as for AI, there is not enough focus and support for creating its own AI experts.
The results if we keep neglecting those problems in the next five years, Morocco, as usual, will buy all of its AI products from other advanced countries. Most of the time, those products do not use state-of-the-art technologies because of licensing and regulations. Hence, Morocco will be forever behind and again inclined to follow the old steps and make the same mistakes other countries have already made.
And Morocco will still be considered a third-world country, and if it sat still and did nothing, it will forever be.
The problem that will soon arise without a doubt, we will be facing an epidemic of AI illiteracy. Africans will not lack clean water only but also clean data and AI specialists.
The advanced countries are recruiting AI talents silently. While African countries are facing a flood of legacy code maintenance jobs, especially from one of the European countries.
I am not trying to sound like an alarmist, but if we do not implement any solution for this matter soon, most African countries will face the point of no return.