Is Africa Ready for AI? Digital Information Privacy Awareness and AI Adoption on the Continent

Respect for privacy has been identified as a guiding principle for the development and use of responsible or ethical artificial intelligence (AI), but also as an endangered value in many countries, including those in Africa. Yet, on the African continent, awareness of personal information privacy remains in its early stages, and awareness-raising initiatives are still limited, fragmented, and non-governmental-driven. Given the current global and local enthusiasm surrounding the adoption and development of AI technologies, I examine the key interrelated factors driving the poor digital information privacy awareness and limited awareness-raising in African countries. Key factors include limited digital literacy; the widespread use and reliance on free and freemium services offered by global North digital technology multinationals; the lack of harmonized data protection legislation and regulation across the continent, which facilitates corporate neocolonialism; and the general apathy of many African governments towards privacy awareness-raising, given their own involvement in privacy-violating surveillance. Subsequently, I recommend strategic actions applicable to diverse stakeholders that could contribute towards reinforcing digital information privacy awareness, particularly within the context of the ongoing adoption and anticipated widespread use of AI technologies on the continent.