The Information and Communication Technologies Commission (ICTC) has stated that the country is prepared to adopt Artificial Intelligence (AI) with the public being assured that AI technology would not threaten to take away human labour but enhance it.
This was said by ICTC Director-General, Dr Nkundwe Mwasaga recently during his presentation on ‘Tanzania’s readiness to adopt the AI and the future of jobs at the recent Annual General Meeting of the ATE in Dar es Salaam.
“AI has not come to kill jobs, but it will change the way of working and thus increase productivity,” Dr Mwasaga said.
Additionally, he noted that artificial intelligence technology will alter the manner in which people work. Thus, Tanzanians should adapt and acquire new areas that accompany this technology.
In his view, some new areas (professions) are robot coordinators, machine learning trainers, AI ethicists, chatbot designers and AI-powered healthcare technicians. In demonstrating the preparedness of the country, Dr Mwasaga stated that Tanzania plans to host the celebration of Africa’s brightest young talents in artificial intelligence and robotics competition in October this year for the first time.
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He said the competition, organized under the umbrella of the African Union (AU) and the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (AU-NEPAD) in partnership with ElevateAI Institute, played a major role in developing an approach to foster the appropriate application of AI all over the African continent.
“With a prize pool of 100,000 US dollars (more than 250m/-) the competition aims to cultivate emerging talent and create a platform for young African minds passionate about AI and robotics,” he added.
Speaking on the importance of AI, Dr Mwasaga commending public institutions that have embarked on the use of emerging technologies, noting that, for instance, the High Court of Tanzania has commenced using AI to conduct and coordinate proceedings in various courts in the country, an effort that would help in speeding up justice delivery.
In the past weeks, the Chief Court Administrator, Professor Elisante Ole Gabriel, confirmed the judiciary’s stand on the adoption of technology in its working.
He further said that by the year 2025, all the works of the court will be done through computers.
“We have become the first institution to use the AI technology, thus proceedings that judges used to write 200 pages now they will only talk and once they finish speaking, they press a button, and it starts translating into different languages, so the work of Magistrates and Judges will be only small in making decisions,” he said.
He said it has started in several courts in the country as pilots, including the High Court of Tanzania, One stop centre for probate and family matters –Temeke among others.
