The 2020 class of Alliance4ai FutureMakers
By Rose Gesicho and Alex Tsado
As Artificial intelligence (Ai) increasingly takes the center stage in unlocking the next era of economic growth across the world, it becomes greatly imperative for Africans and Black people everywhere to tap into its benefits and shape its development. From limiting the spread of COVID-19 to reducing maternal mortality and increasing crop yield for farmers, Ai is already improving lives and local economies globally, but most urgently on the African continent. At Alliance4ai, we are integrating and empowering Africans and its Diaspora future Ai leaders through our education programs, most notably the Alliance4ai FutureMakers program.
FutureMakers is our answer to creating a low resource, effectively transformational, and scalable process to enabling the collaborative adoption and use of Ai by Africa’s people everywhere. These people today don’t have access to education on emerging technologies, don’t believe they are capable of improving their living conditions with these technologies, and suffer bias and harm as they continue to be missing from the design table of Ai products they use.
This year we initiated a network of Ai clubs across four African countries, empowering the youth to become FutureMakers who have the mindset of leaders and build solutions to African and global problems using emerging technologies like Ai. Through this program, we have empowered youth from Kenya, Rwanda, Ghana, and Tunisia to compete in hackathons–with many of our students winning international competitions–publish on Ai in Africa, speak at international events like the Ai for good summit hosted by the UN and much more. These new Ai leaders operate under key values to stay connected as one brain, teach others everything they learn, and prioritize using technology to reduce suffering in the world. They are investing their increased skills and knowledge back into their communities to inspire rapid expansion of Ai expertise in Africa.
As we begin to close out the most transformative year of our lifetimes, it is with great pleasure that we announce the graduation of the first class of Alliance4ai FutureMakers. Join us in celebrating the tremendous achievements of these courageous 140, and investing in the continued acceleration of African tech solutions for Africa’s transformation.
We believe that by strengthening this network of future Ai leaders, we will deliver a world in which maternal mortality, poverty, and pestilences are crises of the past, and in which African youth have higher employment rates than we’ve ever seen in history.
As you think about Christmas gifts and new year resolutions, and reach out to us here about tax-deductible contributions and advice you want to provide as we match towards our dream of growing a network of 1000 FutureMaker clubs across Africa, the USA, Brazil, and the global class of people underrepresented in Ai today.
Learn more about the experiences of key FutureMakers below
Accounts from new FutureMakers
“It’s amazing when I’m seating in class and see other Alliance4ai members leading, facilitating, and helping their classmates succeed. I see this and I nod happily”
What are you most proud of?
I am the first in my family tree to graduate university so this is very special to me and my family. I had no one to look up to, but now I have an incredibly growing network
Outside of being the first to graduate in my family, I managed the end-to-end build of an application
How did you first get interested in AI and technology?
I was exposed to C++ in my first semester studying Electrical Engineering and I got very excited about how programming works and how you can solve problems
What are your future plans?
Beyond mentoring the incoming leaders of the ALU Alliance4ai club after me, I hope to get a job as an AI researcher at a major multinational company and show what Africans can build
“All members, even after one week, share their learnings with others in person and on social media. It gets everyone motivated to see people like themselves trying something exciting like AI”
How did you first get interested in AI and technology?
I got to finish my High school with honors and pass the national pre-engineering exam in top 5%. This got me accepted to Supcom which is the top ICT university in the country. We study IoT, networking, AI and all new technologies
I was inspired by lots of Supcom students that are experts in data science and working with Tunisian and international companies on AI. Firas Baba and Jedidi are national and regional champions of data science and encouraged me a lot.
How would you describe your experience at Alliance4ai?
It was not easy to build the community at the beginning. Majority of students have a vague idea of AI. We built the community by organizing a number of training sessions, focused on how to train in groups and share learnings with others.
Through Alliance4ai I’ve learnt to work in groups, and be part of teams and through the Alliance4ai leadership curriculum I am encouraged to be one of Africa’s leaders.
This experience has also helped me build a strong online technical profile which positions me to get a strong job in the future. I will not only acquire knowledge but also share with others.
With mentors like Firas and Jedidi showing me what is possible, I am filled with motivation to really impact Africa.
What are your future plans?
With the help of students who’ve helped me build this Alliance4ai community, we will start working on tangible solutions to solve problems in Tunisia.
I am exploring Fintech, Agritech and Healthtech use cases of AI.
The Tunisia startup Act encourages startups to launch and thrive and many of them are using AI. It will be interesting to see the opportunities this creates for me.
“At Alliance4ai, I have found a family I can learn about the latest technologies and grow with”
How did you first get interested in AI and technology?
I first got exposed to computers in high school when we did intro to basic microsoft tools. I joined the Jomo Kenyatta pilot program for computer science
How would you describe your experience at Alliance4ai?
Most impactful lesson was the industrial revolutions and Africa’s contribution. We have the solutions to our problems and can work together to improve our society
I love that the discussion sessions encourage everyone to contribute from different backgrounds, senior to junior researchers, business to politics. I share my business value generation context to the AI developers in my group
What are your future plans?
I really want to be able to build models myself from scratch, especially in the finance field like pricing, delinquency and fraud prevention
Do you have any advice for someone reading?
Self-planning is great but with no support and you are busy, it’s difficult. Being in an Alliance4ai club gives me the support to find the growth I desired