The sociology of artificial intelligence development and utilisation in Africa

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is impacting societies’ social relations, institutions and social structures in definitive ways. Not many innovations have impacted human behaviours as significantly as AI. Deviating from the previous studies on AI that focuses on the potential implications of AI for everyday human society, this paper adopted secondary method of data collection, decolonial theory, and case study analysis to examine the sociological utilisation of AI in Africa. It provided answers to the fundamental sociological question of—why sociology of AI is needed in Africa? What forms of historical and social context shape AI’s incursion into Africa? Findings from this study revealed that while AI in Africa is driving positive innovations like financial inclusion, climate resilience, agriculture and food security, rapid diagnosis, education and language inclusion and job creation, it is also exacerbating technological asymmetry, expanding existing inequalities, strengthening unequal geopolitical power relations and perpetuating historical institutional dynamics on the continent.