MTN Ghana trains civil society organisations on artificial intelligence

Telecom giant MTN Ghana has organised a one-day Artificial Intelligence (AI) workshop for Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) at its Head Office in Accra, as part of efforts to deepen understanding of AI and its impact on society.

The event was attended by over 100 participants is an annual programm introduced as part of the company’s commitment to develop human resources in Ghana.

Delivering the opening address, the Acting Senior Manager for Corporate Communications at MTN Ghana, Efua Falconer, said AI is transforming every aspect of life, and no stakeholder should be left behind. "AI, transformation. It is indeed transforming everything around us. And we cannot leave you behind," she said.

We've had these conversations in secondary schools, in the communities, in the markets, with our media, our regulators, across all the different stakeholders that we work with. And today is your turn," she added.

Ms Falconer said the workshop brought together seasoned AI professionals to build the capacity of participants through practical and interactive sessions. She urged participants to be attentive, engage fully, and follow the practical demonstrations on their laptops.

Our message here today is very simple. It's an interesting conversation. You will learn a lot if you are attentive. Please make sure you ask questions; there's a lot of practical work. Engage, take your laptop and just follow along," she said.

She explained that while government regulates and companies like MTN build the infrastructure powering the AI journey, civil society plays a critical role as the voice of the vulnerable.

You are the mouthpiece of the vulnerable, the youth, the market woman who doesn't know a lot about data, the school children who are using data. You are the people who speak for the vulnerable in society. So we cannot leave you out of this conversation," she stressed.

Ms Falconer said MTN was confident participants would take the knowledge acquired beyond the walls of the training room and apply it in their various spheres of influence.

"If we don't, we are going to be left behind. You give the kids today a mobile phone, and the kind of things they are able to do within a short period; you at 40, 50, you can't do it. So please, they are leaving us behind. So we have to catch up.

 And the youth, this is your time," she told participants.

Speaking on behalf of the Chief Corporate Services and Sustainability Officer, Madam Adwoa Afriyie Wiafe, the Senior Manager for Regulatory and Government Affairs at MTN Ghana, Samuel Bartels, challenged CSOs to make their knowledge visible online.

He said CSOs do advocacy, interventions, and community work and know communities better than anyone, yet their rich knowledge is missing from the digital space that powers AI.

Do you know that a lot of the things that concern Africans are not online? If you call an AI tool for some information, it may not give you that perspective, because some of the things are still hiding in the Balme Library, and AI doesn't travel to the Balme Library at the University of Ghana," he said. According to him, AI can only work with what has been codified and put online, and currently only about 2% of the data used to train Large Language Models (LLMs) is from Africa.

Quoting a book titled Best Story Wins, Mr Bartels said only those who tell their story win.

He warned that if CSO research and project reports remain as hardbound documents locked in cupboards at their secretariats, AI systems will never learn from them. "So, in terms of storytelling, we are falling behind in this AI revolution because our information is just not available to train an AI model. So, the AI model will still tell stories that paint poverty, conflict and disease about us, because they don't have the alternative story," he said. He lamented that much of the content Africans now produce online is for entertainment rather than for reflection and knowledge sharing.

Unfortunately, a lot of the content we develop now is just for people to laugh, and not necessarily for people to think or reflect.

So, in the storytelling game, Ghana and Africa will lose out because our stories are not out there," he noted.

Mr Bartels said as technology emerges, two questions arise: what can the technology do, and what should we do with the technology? He said while the workshop would address what AI can do, CSOs must help answer what should be done with it, given their closeness to communities.

This is why it was important to have this conversation with you. It's important that we also listen to your perspective. What you hear in the communities, we at MTN may never hear.

What we may miss, you see," he said. Facilitating the first technical session, Data Scientist at MTN Ghana, Elie Tetteh Wayoe, said AI has become an opportunity for everyone and must be leveraged responsibly to serve society. "There is a new area that is coming.

 It's making life easier. But for it to have impact, it must be used in the right way," he said. Mr Wayoe said MTN's vision is to ensure AI is made accessible and scalable for everyone, not just as a business tool, but as a force for good that is deployed responsibly.

Presenting on the topic "MTN and AI, focusing on responsible innovation for social and systemic impact," he said AI is not here to take people's jobs, but to augment human efforts. "If you don't make use of it, then you are the one who is behind. We don't expect AI to take everyone's place; it helps augment us to become better," he said.

He outlined MTN's  AI strategy, which focuses on value creation and building a foundation for practical use cases, with emphasis on responsible adoption. According to him, for AI to be adopted responsibly, there must be guardrails, governance, trust principles, and human accountability. "You have to be accountable for what you do, for ensuring things will be done in the right manner. There has to be trust.

Without governance, responsible adoption is impossible," he said.

He added that the training would also explore practical examples of how AI can be applied in the daily activities and advocacy work of CSOs to enhance efficiency and deepen their social impact.

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DISCLAIMER: The Views, Comments, Opinions, Contributions and Statements made by Readers and Contributors on this platform do not necessarily represent the views or policy of Multimedia Group Limited.