AI & African Enterprises: Feb 2023 Newsletter

Newsletter originally published February 27, 2023

💬 Everything's Coming Up ChatGPT

ChatGPT discourse seemingly reached a fever pitch in February. A chatbot developed by OpenAI that leverages GPT-3, a neural network model for generating cohesive responses leveraging multiple data sources to arbitrary questions, ChatGPT's success triggered conversations around conversational search (see: Microsoft's partnership with and $10b investment in OpenAI) and investor interest in generative AI startups.

Sidebar: Generative AI comprises products built on machine-learning models trained to generate useful data from other data sources, e.g. text (ChatGPT) and images (Stable Diffusion).

Some of the ChatGPT discourse focused on OpenAI paying Ugandan and Kenyan workers $1.32 to $2/hour to label toxic content used for training ChatGPT. Data collection/labelling is foundational to AI (no data, no models, no products) and the controversy highlights the risk Africans face being hired in potentially exploitative roles in undervalued segments of what I call the AI value chain.

Takeaway: ChatGPT's success and the subsequent flurry of investments in generative AI startups highlight the importance of building African AI startups further along the AI value chain to attract the greatest benefit to Africans and Africa

We look forward to keeping you informed of the products, deals and partnerships shaping the future of AI in Africa on the last Monday of every month.

Questions, comments, feedback?  hello@ajalaco.com


—Team ajala

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