Rabat: Closing ceremony of the 1st High Level Forum on AI. Credit: MAP
Participants in the 1st High Level Forum on AI, held under the theme “Artificial intelligence as a lever for development in Africa”, adopted, on Tuesday, the Rabat Declaration, an African consensus text with a view to establishing AI as an accelerator of structural transformations for the countries of the South.
Placed under the high patronage of King Mohammed VI, this international conclave (June 3-5) is initiated by the Mohammed VI Polytechnic University (UM6P) through its AI Movement Center, in partnership with UNESCO.
This declaration, which is intended to be a call to action, and which reflects the conclusions and recommendations of two days of work of the forum, was approved by acclamation after reading the text by Prof. Amal El Fallah Seghrouchni, Executive President of AI Movement-UM6P, during the closing ceremony of the Forum, which took place in the presence of several personalities, notably the Royal Advisor, André Azoulay, and the Assistant Director General of UNESCO for Communication and Information, Tawfik Jelassi.
At the end of this ceremony, Prof. Seghrouchni affirmed that the Rabat Consensus on AI for Africa is a first step towards the African governance of artificial intelligence, initiated by the AI Movement center.
“The Rabat Consensus will be a landmark and we now intend to launch work on a continental scale with our European, American and Asian partners on this issue,” she assured.
Under the Rabat Declaration, the community of African actors commits to a consensus and agrees on three founding principles that will mobilize institutions across the continent, namely, working towards the development of a common framework for global and inclusive AI governance, harnessing AI in the public sector and in the service of the African common good and ensuring the ethical and human rights-based development and use of AI in the service of everyone.
AI could indeed generate 1,500 billion dollars for the African economy by 2030. Its fields of application as well as its autonomous machines which take charge of certain human activities will have a profound impact on the lives of several dozen of millions of Africans, as well as on societies around the world, we read in the text.
The urgent need to modernize education and health systems represents an issue of economic sovereignty which requires looking at AI as an accelerator of structural transformations for the countries of the South. Elsewhere, AI will move from the status of cutting-edge innovation to that of a mass technology that revolutionizes all the areas in which it intervenes: education, medicine, agriculture, ecological transition, media, etc., the same Source emphasizes. .
Indeed, for the first time, more than 20 countries, represented by high-level delegations and experts, agreed in Rabat on the need to understand the global issues directly linked to artificial intelligence.
This rapidly evolving technology, which harnesses the intelligence of machines and software, is transforming all social spheres on a global scale. It has the potential to contribute to an increase of 5 to 6% in the continent’s Gross Domestic Product by 2030.
The International Center for Artificial Intelligence of Morocco, Ai Movement, is a center of excellence aimed at promoting Moroccan and African expertise in artificial intelligence and data sciences. It aims to make Morocco a regional AI hub influencing its ecosystem at strategic, educational and industrial levels.
In partnership with companies and government organizations, the center develops innovative, resilient and ethical solutions to societal, environmental, economic and technological issues. Labeled as the first category II AI center under the auspices of UNESCO in Africa, AI Movement also aims to maximize the social and economic impact of AI for a prosperous Africa.
