The Globalization of Artificial Intelligence: African Imaginaries of Technoscientific Futures

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dc.contributor.advisorBirch, Kean D.
dc.contributor.authorHassan, Yousif Abdulla Obaid
dc.date.accessioned2023-03-28T21:20:40Z
dc.date.available2023-03-28T21:20:40Z
dc.date.copyright2022-12-15
dc.date.issued2023-03-28
dc.date.updated2023-03-28T21:20:39Z
dc.degree.disciplineScience & Technology Studies
dc.degree.levelDoctoral
dc.degree.namePhD - Doctor of Philosophy
dc.description.abstractImaginaries of artificial intelligence (AI) have transcended geographies of the Global North and become increasingly entangled with narratives of economic growth, progress, and modernity in Africa. This raises several issues such as the entanglement of AI with global technoscientific capitalism and its impact on the dissemination of AI in Africa. The lack of African perspectives on the development of AI exacerbates concerns of raciality and inclusion in the scientific research, circulation, and adoption of AI. My argument in this dissertation is that innovation in AI, in both its sociotechnical imaginaries and political economies, excludes marginalized countries, nations and communities in ways that not only bar their participation in the reception of AI, but also as being part and parcel of its creation. Underpinned by decolonial thinking, and perspectives from science and technology studies and African studies, this dissertation looks at how AI is reconfiguring the debate about development and modernization in Africa and the implications for local sociotechnical practices of AI innovation and governance. I examined AI in international development and industry across Kenya, Ghana, and Nigeria, by tracing Canada’s AI4D Africa program and following AI start-ups at AfriLabs. I used multi-sited case studies and discourse analysis to examine the data collected from interviews, participant observations, and documents. In the empirical chapters, I first examine how local actors understand the notion of decolonizing AI and show that it has become a sociotechnical imaginary. I then investigate the political economy of AI in Africa and argue that despite Western efforts to integrate the African AI ecosystem globally, the AI epistemic communities in the continent continue to be excluded from dominant AI innovation spaces. Finally, I examine the emergence of a Pan-African AI imaginary and argue that AI governance can be understood as a state-building experiment in post-colonial Africa. The main issue at stake is that the lack of African perspectives in AI leads to negative impacts on innovation and limits the fair distribution of the benefits of AI across nations, countries, and communities, while at the same time excludes globally marginalized epistemic communities from the imagination and creation of AI.
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10315/41017
dc.languageen
dc.rightsAuthor owns copyright, except where explicitly noted. Please contact the author directly with licensing requests.
dc.subjectInformation science
dc.subjectAfrican studies
dc.subjectPolitical science
dc.subject.keywordsScience and technology studies
dc.subject.keywordsDecolonization
dc.subject.keywordsPostcolonialism
dc.subject.keywordsAnticolonialism African studies
dc.subject.keywordsBlack studies
dc.subject.keywordsPolitical economy
dc.subject.keywordsPolitical economy of technoscience
dc.subject.keywordsInnovation studies
dc.subject.keywordsInformation science
dc.subject.keywordsCommunication studies
dc.subject.keywordsArtificial Intelligence
dc.subject.keywordsAI
dc.subject.keywordsComputing
dc.subject.keywordsData
dc.subject.keywordsBig data
dc.subject.keywordsAI governance
dc.subject.keywordsAI ethics
dc.subject.keywordsResponsible AI
dc.subject.keywordsResponsible innovation
dc.subject.keywordsAI for good
dc.subject.keywordsAI for development
dc.subject.keywordsAI for social good
dc.subject.keywordsAI policy
dc.subject.keywordsInnovation policy
dc.subject.keywordsTechnoscience policy
dc.subject.keywordsFourth industrial revolution
dc.subject.keywordsPostcolonial STS
dc.subject.keywordsDecolonial STS
dc.subject.keywordsAnticolonial STS
dc.subject.keywordsTechnology policy
dc.subject.keywordsData protection
dc.subject.keywordsData policy
dc.subject.keywordsData coloniality
dc.subject.keywordsSurveillance capitalism
dc.subject.keywordsDigital capitalism
dc.subject.keywordsTechnoscientific capitalism
dc.subject.keywordsCapitalism
dc.subject.keywordsSocialism
dc.subject.keywordsAfrican socialism
dc.subject.keywordsPan-Africanism
dc.subject.keywordsAfrican Union
dc.subject.keywordsOECD
dc.subject.keywordsOrganization of African Unity
dc.subject.keywordsIDRC
dc.subject.keywordsGlobal Affairs
dc.subject.keywordsCanada
dc.subject.keywordsKenya
dc.subject.keywordsGhana
dc.subject.keywordsNigeria
dc.subject.keywordsAfrica
dc.subject.keywordsAI4D
dc.subject.keywordsICT4D
dc.titleThe Globalization of Artificial Intelligence: African Imaginaries of Technoscientific Futures
dc.typeElectronic Thesis or Dissertation

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