AI Insights

UCT's H3D and Ersilia Open Source Initiative have created a computational pipeline to tailor malaria and TB treatment to African genetic diversity, marking a step towards safer, more effective African-centric drug dosing.

UCT's Centre for Innovation in Learning and Teaching researchers share early insights on developing literacies for ethical, critical and constructive use of generative AI in teaching, learning and assessment.

Webinar Recap: How can African repair practices reshape AI ethics? Moving beyond upstream design concerns towards downstream sites where ethical judgement occurs amid constraint, toxicity and unequal exposure.

An online workshop bringing cutting-edge machine learning to African researchers, addressing unique health challenges through a partnership between H3D Foundation and Ersilia.

Webinar Recap: Ololade Faniyi and Irene Mwendwa repositioned African feminist thought as a vital source of critique for AI ethics, challenging frameworks that treat Africa only as a site of harm rather than innovation.

J-PAL researchers joined us for the 2025 ARUA international conference, with Sarah Kopper conducting a workshop on evaluating AI interventions, and Sam Carter delivering a keynote on the potential of AI to reduce poverty and inequality.

Webinar Recap: Chris Emezue reveals how Africa's AI contributions remain hidden in plain sight—and how Lanfrica is creating visibility for resources across the continent.

AI promises to enhance us, but by outsourcing memory, reasoning, and empathy to machines, we risk atrophying the very human faculties we have a moral duty to cultivate - turning transcendence into dependence.

Republished:: CISPA signs MoUs with UCT and WITS to advance cybersecurity and AI research. The partnerships enable student exchanges, joint projects, and capacity building across Africa and Europe.

UCT and the Global Centre on AI Governance (GCG) recently launched the African Hub on AI Safety, Peace, and Security, first-of-its-kind platform designed to ensure that African perspectives are at the centre of global AI safety debates.

Republished: AI risks deepening global inequality without action. Africa holds <1% of data centers but needs 5 key policy changes: computing power, data governance, local languages, skills, and ethics.

Republished: A new survey of over 3,000 South Africans from all walks of life reveals that most South Africans can’t relate to AI in meaningful ways – despite the global hype about its pros and cons.

Republished: New research maps Africa's AI risks & proposes a 5-pillar action plan: human rights-grounded governance, an African AI Safety Institute, public literacy, early warning systems & AU forum.

Opportunity Alert: A 3-month research fellowship developing core topics in cooperative AI, with world-class mentorship.

Republished: Ubuntu's AI ethics turn engages African philosophy—"person through others"—emphasizing interdependence over individualism yet often lacks depth in reshaping ethical frameworks.

Republished: AI is here to stay - and lecturers and students ate UCT are thinking about its role together.

Opportunity Alert: Join UCT's Africa Microscopy Initiative as an Image Analyst! Work with researchers across Africa developing AI/ML analysis pipelines for critical biomedical research.

Exploring AI, Ethics, and African Futures Through Humanistic Inquiry

The AI Initiative partnered with Tokyo's Matsuo-Iwasawa Lab for an intensive weekend program, bringing world-class data science education to 50 UCT Commerce students through hands-on lessons and expert-led sessions.

UCT has made a decisive move in the global education debate on artificial intelligence (AI) by officially adopting a university-wide framework that sets out how AI technologies should be integrated into teaching, learning and assessment.

AI safety is a theme rapidly gaining traction. A recent webinar held by the EthicsLab sought to ask a more situated question: What does it mean to talk about safety in Africa, and for whom is safety at stake?