AI, other technologies need to be people-centred - Trade Negotiator

Former Deputy Director-General and Chief Trade Negotiator at Nigerian Office for Trade Negotiations, Dr Yonov Fred Agah, has entreated creators of Artificial Intelligence and other technologies to make them people-centred.

He noted that the automation of AI will lead to unemployment in Africa.

Speaking further on the side effect of the introduction of AI and other technologies in the workplace, Dr Agah stated that AI needs to be regulated to help avert the numerous challenges spelt out by many.

Making this known at the Afreximbank 30th Annual Meeting in Accra on Tuesday, June 20, 2023, the trade negotiator said, "Government from a trade policy point of view needs to determine which sectors will be best for development or for economic growth. Then, whatever technologies you now use including AI need to be regulated because at the end of the day, the issues to be addressed, what value added is the technology bringing."

"The technology must be people-centred because if you automate it too much, in Africa for example, you create unemployment...you need to have not just a regulatory framework but also the institutions that will manage how these technologies are used," he pointed out.

It would be recalled that experts have in the past months advised people, especially employees, to brace themselves up for the negative impact of Artificial Intelligence within the workspace.

Companies that have a lot of workforces would be trimmed down and the few ones retained would be trained to be technologically inclined and adapt to the change.

Other experts, on the other hand, have asserted that trained data from AI will simplify work.

This, they say will lead to an exponential growth of companies.

ESA/FNOQ