On February 24, 2022, the African Ministers in charge of ICT will officially launch the activities of the African Center for Research in Artificial Intelligence (CARIA) in Brazzaville, Congo.
Artificial Intelligence Research Center, located within the DENIS SASSOU-N'GUESSO University, Kintélé, is a place of cutting-edge research on Artificial Intelligence, focusing on a human-centered approach to maximize the benefits and counter the challenges of developing and utilizing this technology for socio-economic development in Africa.
Indeed, CARIA will undertake research on the legal, ethical, economic and societal implications of Artificial Intelligence technologies, and develop tools, products and services based on Artificial Intelligence to help African countries adopt the implementation of this emerging technology in their efforts to meet national development aspirations, as well as the internationally agreed Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
In this regard, the establishment of this African Center for Research in Artificial Intelligence, will undertake interdisciplinary research in several fields while emphasizing the reduction of real social problems and the emergence of the continent in terms of technology. It will be the central node for African researchers to conduct and disseminate advanced research using cutting-edge technologies in the field of Artificial Intelligence.
All in all, CARIA is being established thanks to the will of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), to help several African countries promote and adopt new and emerging technologies, in order to advance their development aspirations towards the transformation of their economies as part of the growing global digital and knowledge economy.
As a reminder, from November 9 to 11, 2021, gathered in Brazzaville, for a workshop on the documents for the effective establishment of the African Center for Research in Artificial Intelligence, experts and other ICT scholars had produced a strategic document of which the quintessence is the coherent mode of operation of CARIA, generating jobs and accelerating economic growth in Africa, as the launch of CARIA's activities has been agreed to commence at the beginning of 2022,
The establishment of this Artificial Intelligence Regional Center, the very first in Africa, makes the Republic of Congo a major regional hub for the development of emerging technologies in the region.