The debate surrounding artificial intelligence (AI) and its potential societal impact dominates headlines. However, the conversation often rings hollow in Africa, where limited internet access and other factors make AI’s supposed widespread impact unlikely. A similar divide, like the one seen with blockchain and cryptocurrency, is slowly emerging between those who support AI and those who oppose it.

However, when the real questions are raised, both sides often fall silent. This suggests that many participants in the debate may be acting in the interests of others, who are often far removed from the realities on the ground. This helps explain why discussions about secondary issues seem to drown out more substantive discourse.

For example, a recent Bitcoin.com News report highlighted a debate among African university students who expressed concern about AI’s threat to their job prospects. While this makes for catchy headlines, such a debate is misplaced. AI is unlikely to significantly impact jobs that have not already been automated. Consider artisanal miners, who extract minerals using some of the most rudimentary methods due to a lack of electricity that would enable automation.

As it stands, such artisanal miners would not hire a qualified engineer, as their extraction methods do not require such expertise. Moreover, artisanal miners’ revenues cannot support the salary of a highly educated employee. This means the Tanzanian engineering student who fears AI could further hinder job prospects is already in a precarious position, as there are simply not enough jobs for people with similar qualifications.

Electricity is not the only essential missing ingredient for AI’s widespread impact. The internet, still seen as a luxury by many, is another vital tool without which AI will remain primarily accessible to the elite. As many Africa focused cryptocurrency proponents will attest, without affordable and reliable internet access, the dream of millions of financially excluded people adopting cryptocurrencies will remain just that: a dream.

The Central African Republic (CAR) provides a prime example of why it is crucial to understand local realities before rushing to embrace new technologies. When the CAR government declared bitcoin legal tender, it may have overlooked the lack of supporting infrastructure. The country had one of the lowest internet penetration rates in Africa, below 10% at the start of 2022, and the population had limited understanding of bitcoin basics. These factors, coupled with subsequent legal challenges and threats from a regional economic bloc, ultimately doomed the government’s ambitious goal of becoming the first African nation to successfully embrace bitcoin.

Of course, it’s important to note that bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptocurrencies have faced significant opposition from powerful adversaries who will go to great lengths to undermine Satoshi Nakamoto’s vision. AI, on the other hand, doesn’t have such enemies. In fact, both the powerful and the powerless seem to embrace AI, which bodes well for its success. However, simply being popular will not automatically make AI a threat to job-seeking university graduates, as some Tanzanian students have argued.

African countries and other nations with infrastructure deficits must do much more to position themselves to benefit first before even entertaining talk about AI risks. They can do this by investing in infrastructure, such as data centers and satellite internet, and education. It also means taking concrete steps beyond merely signing or ratifying treaties on AI or other emerging technologies.

Only then will the debate about AI as a threat or an opportunity become truly relevant.

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