Charles Murito, Google’s regional director for government affairs and public policy for sub-Saharan Africa, made an important point during his keynote address at the ongoing Africa Tech Festival 2024, titled “Strengthening Connectivity for the AI Era.”
According to Murito, African governments should focus their energy on regulating the use cases of artificial intelligence (AI) rather than regulating the technology itself:
“We need to think about AI not as a technology that needs to be regulated. AI is a general-purpose technology, akin to what electricity was a 100-plus years ago.”
“What we need to regulate is not the technology itself, but the use cases of that technology.”
He also emphasized that AI could help in various sectors. However, he stressed that regulations should not be at the technological level but should encompass the entire industry. To strengthen his argument, he provided an example from the healthcare sector:
“Health is also critical, and AI will have a massive impact, because in Kenya alone, around 7,000 women die because of pregnancy complications. AI can help that, as you can use lower-cost devices to deliver ultrasound intelligence to see what the pregnancy progress is.”
“So again, it is critical to regulate it at that level, and not at the level of the technology itself.”
