AI4D Africa & AI4COVID med IDRC AI4D Africa & AI4COVID with IDRC Programmet Artificial Intelligence for Development in Africa, AI4D Africa är en ny insats för att bygga kapacitet för forskning inom artificiell intelligens (AI), policyutveckling och tillämpningar av ansvarsfull AI i låg- och lägre medelinkomstländer i Afrika. Det är i första hand forskare som drar nytta av programmet men de applikationer som kommer att utvecklas av forskare förväntas kunna bidra till bidra till förutsättningar att fattiga människor ska kunna förbättra sina liv.  Inom programmet finns även en komponent för stöd till ett globalt program för tvärvetenskaplig forskning för att fördjupa vår förståelse för hur man utvecklar och skalar upp ansvarsfull (inkluderande, rättighetsbaserad, etisk och hållbar), evidensbaserad artificiell intelligens (AI) och datavetenskapliga metoder som stöder respons och återhämtning rörande COVID-19 i låg inkomst och medelinkomst (LMIC) länder. Båda programmen AI4D Africa och AI för COVID-19 respons är samarbeten med IDRC och har samma upplägg som det med IDRC för Science Granting Councils i Afrika (se beslut nr 2018-002101).

Den kanadensiska regeringens statliga bolag för forskningsbistånd, International Development Research Centre (IDRC) och Sida har sedan 2017 har diskuterat samfinansiering av ett programförslag i syfte att ingå ett fyrårigt partnerskap av programmet AI4D för att stärka och stimulera forskning för en ansvarsfull AI-utveckling i Afrika. 

Programförslaget för AI4D Afrika har utvecklats av IDRC i dialog med Sida och är ett fyraårigt program med en budget på 20M kanadensiska dollar (ungefär 141MSEK). Under beredningen drabbades världen av COVID-19 pandemin och det föreslås en  samfinansiering av det tvååriga programförslaget “The COVID-19 Global South AI and Data Innovation Program” som en komponent i insatsen. AI och COVID-19 programmet har en budget på 10M kanadensiska dollar.  Det föreslås att Sida bidrar till finansieringen av hälften av AI4D Afrika programmets kostnader  under aktivitetsperioden 2020 till 2024 och till 40% av programmet för AI och COVID-19 kostnader med 28,6 MSEK under aktivitetsperioden 2020-2022. Sidas avtal med IDRC är fyra år och totalt ca 106MSEK. I beloppet ingår även kostnad för revisioner som Sida begär. The Artificial Intelligence for Development in Africa program, AI4D Africa is a new initiative to build capacity for artificial intelligence (AI) research, policy development and applications of responsible AI in low and lower middle income countries in Africa. It is primarily researchers who benefit from the program, but the applications that will be developed by researchers are expected to contribute to the conditions for poor people to improve their lives. The program also includes a support to a global program for interdisciplinary research to deepen our understanding of how to develop and scale responsibly (inclusive, rights-based, ethical and sustainable), evidence-based artificial intelligence (AI) and data science methods that support response and recovery of COVID-19 in low-income and middle-income (LMIC) countries. Both the AI4D Africa and AI programs for the COVID-19 response are collaborations with the Canadian Government's State Research Assistance Company, International Development Research Center (IDRC).

IDRC and Sida have since 2017 been discussing co-financing of a program proposal with the aim of entering into a partnership with the AI4D program to strengthen and stimulate research for responsible AI development in Africa. .

The AI4D program proposal has been developed by IDRC in dialogue with Sida and is a four-year program with a budget of 20M Canadian dollars (approximately 141MSEK). During the preparation, the world was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and it is proposed to co-finance the two-year program proposal “The COVID-19 Global South AI and Data Innovation Program” as a component of the effort. It is proposed that Sida contribute to the financing of half of the AI4D Africa program's costs during the 2020-2020 activity period and to the AI ??and COVID-19 program with 40% i.e. 28,6MSEK during the 2020-2022 activity period. Sida's agreement with IDRC is four years and for a total of approximately 106MSEK. The amount also includes the cost of audits requested by Sida. AI4D Africa

The program Artificial Intelligence for Development (AI4D) Africa aims to build and support policy, research capacity, and innovations to spur responsible artificial intelligence (AI) development in Africa. Responsible AI strives to be inclusive, rights-based and sustainable.

The future of AI on the African continent, however, is not yet written, and the policies and practices put in place now will greatly shape the flow of benefits and harms from AI.

AI4D will strengthen and promote scientific multidisciplinary AI research in primarily low-income countries in Africa; strengthen low-income countries own research AI capacity; and support sustainable innovation and research systems in low-income countries in Africa with the aim of reaching a critical mass of highly qualified AI researchers.

AI4D will strengthen policies and regulation for AI to be ethical and rights based and have a regulatory framework for the African context that can both stimulate innovation and minimize risks (for example, for human rights). 

The program will stimulate locally-run applications in the public interest for poverty reduction. Fuelled by the increasing availability of computational power, improved connectivity, and data, AI applications offer interesting possibilities for promoting economic growth  through spurring new start ups, improving food systems, enabling higher quality education systems and tackling pressing health and climate challenges in Africa.

The AI4D initiative will target funding towards achievement of the following three specific objectives: 

-Increasing evidence-informed AI policy and regulations that support responsible AI development at sub-national, national, regional levels;

-Building the talent and capacity that supports the local design, development, and deployment of responsible AI4D innovations at the appropriate scale;

-Catalysing the responsible development and scaling of AI innovations that solve development challenges.

AI4COVID

The goal of the AI4COVID Global South Program is to support multidisciplinary research to develop and scale responsible (inclusive, rights-based, ethical, and sustainable), evidence-based artificial intelligence (AI) and data science approaches that support COVID-19 response and recovery in low- and middle-income countries.

The program will advance ethical research and responsible AI innovation, pay special attention to potential harms, and advance data science and AI approaches that are gender responsive, culturally appropriate, community specific, and based on local needs and contexts.

The projects selected within the program should respond to the COVID challenge in a variety of ways. They should support the development of core infrastructure for data sharing, quality decision making, and responsible, multi-disciplinary approaches to COVID response based on data, evidence, and new modelling techniques. These include:

- Adapting epidemiological and machine learning models to developing country contexts to support reliable and effective decision making;

- Testing novel ways to assess the effectiveness of public health measures to reduce COVID moralities and negative socioeconomic impacts;

- Developing and testing precision public health models and interventions, including new forms of testing and diagnosis.

Summary

The AI4D and AI4COVID programmes are well in line with the overall aim of the strategy for Swedish development cooperation within research for poverty reduction and sustainable development  (20222028), contributing to:

- the capacity-building for research, primarily in low-income countries, and regions, by strengthening conditions and capacity among national, and regional, research actors to participate in international research, and research dialogue, within AI and related fields;

- global, regional and national research of relevance, within AI and related fields, to low-income countries and regions, by stimulating research of relevance to development at regional research organisations, and at universities in partner countries;

- the promotion of AI research that, through innovation, can have an impact on poverty reduction and sustainable development.