The Politics of Tech-adoption and Artificial Intelligence in Africa

Abstract

The present Tech-adoption, visible in the proliferation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) or Self Service Technologies (SST) in Africa is political. This is as it involves a Tech-economic interaction that is undergirded by politics. The supply of AI/SST to Africa has opened another vista of  Tech-geopolitics that could strengthen the existing African dependence and neocolonialism.  This is as this AI/SST is developed to served observed needs in the Global North in most cases. Yet Africans who were not in the picture during and after the development stage are made to adopt and use these technologies. This study is dominated by Tech-adoption and development in cognisance of a people's ontological nature with a view to improve it. Is it then possible for an AI/SST system developed without cognisance to Africa to serve the purpose of Africa? Using philosophical method of analysis, this study interrogates this question, and argues that Tech-adoption in Africa is another geopolitics aimed at strengthening the existing Western hegemony in the continent.