There aren’t enough early-age education tools that allow children to explore Artificial Intelligence (A.I) and associated terms, terms such as "Machine Learning", "Natural Language Processing" and so on.
Africa seems to be one of the last continents to go through a technological boom, so my logic dictates that it will eventually go through a BOOM. With that being said, the next generation of kids need skills such as knowing how to use Artificial Intelligence to build solutions around real-world challenges.
If you have not heard about the United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDG), they are 17 goals to be achieved by 2030. Imagine a generation of Thinkers who can understand a design process (Ideate, Plan, Prototype, Evaluate and Launch) to create solutions based off real-world challenges AND recruiting their knowledge of how to use CRAZY computing power to aid with solutions.
*Picture: A screenshot of the "Play with A.I" course. Including Global Impact Network, a community of people advocating the UNSDG.
In the recent "Age of A.I" YouTube Originals, Robert Downey Jr. narrates the applications we are using Artificial Intelligence for. Solutions including anti-poaching, food security, healthcare, finding aliens and 8 other episodes of what could be a sci-fi film but is actually our reality.
For children to better understand and explore the technologies behind these buzzwords they need more ways to actively engage with them. So why should we be prioritising this for kids in Africa? With all of its natural minerals, resources, beautiful climates and creative people, Africa should start achieving independence on a global scale and one way we can distinguish ourselves over and above our minerals is with tech. Ever watched Black Panther?
Play With A.I allows children to think like a ‘Thinker’ - someone who looks at the world as it is now and imagines how can things be different in the future. Playing with A.I will equip the generation today with the skills needed for an uncertain future.
