DSFSI at the Global AI Summit on Africa 2025
The Data Science for Social Impact (DSFSI) team at the University of Pretoria proudly participated in the Global AI Summit on Africa 2025 (GAISAfrica2025), held in Kigali, Rwanda, and hosted by the Rwanda Center for the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The summit gathered researchers, policymakers, funders, and innovators to shape the continent’s AI future—with a focus on sovereignty, inclusion, and shared infrastructure.
The Data Science for Social Impact (DSFSI) team at the University of Pretoria proudly participated in the Global AI Summit on Africa 2025 (GAISAfrica2025), held in Kigali, Rwanda, and hosted by the Rwanda Center for the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The summit gathered researchers, policymakers, funders, and innovators to shape the continent’s AI future—with a focus on sovereignty, inclusion, and shared infrastructure.
Key Contributions and Highlights
Equal Compute Network Workshop
Prof. Vukosi Marivate participated in sessions addressing equitable access to compute infrastructure. The discussion emphasized the importance of not just hardware, but supporting ecosystems—training, resources, and long-term sustainability.
Symposium on Language AI in Africa
We shared our work on evaluating NLP tools for African languages, co-developing open resources, and collaborating through the Data.org African NLP Playbooks project.
Gates Foundation AI Community of Practice
In two fishbowl sessions, DSFSI contributed insights on AI tools for local languages and real-world needs.
Qhala AI Research Symposium
Prof. Marivate moderated the closing panel exploring contextually grounded AI and African futures.
WEF YGL Dinner & SA Delegation
We joined the official South African delegation, led by Deputy Minister Mondli Gungubele, for strategic meetings around infrastructure, research alignment, and capacity building. That evening, we joined the World Economic Forum Young Global Leaders dinner.
Africa Next Voices – ASR Collaboration
Dr. Kayode Olaleye joined labs across Africa to discuss collaborative ASR development—highlighting dataset sharing and speech model coordination.
Podcast Recording
Prof. Marivate recorded an episode with Zain Verjee on The Rundown – Embedded:
🎧 Language AI as Critical Infrastructure
Day 4: Panels, Partnerships & the Africa Declaration
- Stakeholder breakfast co-hosted with Partnership on AI and Deep Learning Indaba, joined by UN Envoy Amandeep Singh Gill.
- Prof. Marivate delivered a spotlight talk and joined the GenAI in Africa panel, addressing both opportunity and risk.
- Launch of the 2024 Deep Learning Indaba Impact Report:
📘 Read the Report - Africa-wide announcement of the Africa Declaration on AI and a $60B AI Fund:
📄 Read the Declaration
Closing: Aligning the Continent
Dr. Abiodun Modupe represented DSFSI at the AI4D Labs Meeting, focused on:
- Shared evaluation frameworks
- Ethical review protocols
- Pooling infrastructure resources across African AI labs
DSFSI’s Core Areas of Work
- African Natural Language Processing (NLP)
- Language technologies for social impact
- Data Science for Society
- Ethical and public-interest AI
- Policy integration
- Research capacity development
Connect with Us
📧 Email: dsfsi.info@up.ac.za
🌍 Website: dsfsi.github.io
🔗 Social: Twitter/X | LinkedIn | Linktree
📖 All GAISAfrica2025 session recordings
Thank you to everyone who contributed to making GAISAfrica2025 a success. DSFSI remains committed to an inclusive, ethical African AI future.