- Alphabet’s DeepMind has partnered with the African Institute of Mathematic Sciences (AIMS) to launch a scholarship programme for students across the continent focused on AI.
- DeepMind says it will donate up to $4.5 million to cover full scholarships, equipment and computational resources with the goal of supporting 160 students in the next four years.
- AI is still fallow ground in Africa with the field underrepresented when compared to the global north.
A new partnership will see students across Africa receive scholarships to study artificial intelligence-related fields and sciences to accelerate the continent’s discoveries in AI.
The partnership will see DeepMind, a science and AI-focused subsidiary of Google-owner Alphabet, join forces with the African Institute for Mathematic Sciences (AIMS) to launch the new “AI for Science” pan-African Masters programme.
Through this programme students from across the region will receive a chance to pursue advanced studies at AIMS South Africa, and connect with DeepMind’s researchers and engineers for mentoring and support.
According to a press release sent to Hypertext, both organisations say they hope the programme will help contribute to a more diverse global AI ecosystem, one with an included African perspective.
Across Africa, work on artificial intelligence and related fields is still fallow ground. Last year saw the publishing of reports like “2022 State of AI in Africa” which indicates that AI is growing across the continent and so are its practitioners. However, there is a problem here as African “AI practitioners” are in high demand in the global north and west which produces the risk of a brain drain.
“Africa has the youngest population in the world and as such holds incredible potential to contribute to the field of AI – yet, the region is significantly underrepresented in AI research today,” said Obum Ekeke OBE, Head of Education Partnerships at DeepMind.
“Fixing this not only is the right thing to do – it is critical if AI is going to be a technology that benefits everyone. We hope this programme not only serves to build a more diverse and inclusive global AI ecosystem, but also enables new breakthroughs in science that will benefit the African region directly.”
In terms of the pan-African Masters programme, DeepMind says it will donate up to $4.5 million to cover full scholarships, equipment and computational resources for 40 students per academic year, with an aim of reaching up to 160 students by the end of the initial four-year period.
DeepMind employees will also provide career and dissertation mentoring to students.
The curriculum, which will initially run from August 2023 to July 2027, will look at how AI can be used to better understand the world and accelerate progress on some of today’s most fundamental scientific challenges.
It will be developed by AIMS and DeepMind, with input from four world-leading local scientific groups:
- Square Kilometre Array Observatory (SKAO) and its South African partner, the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO), an international effort to build the world’s largest radio telescope,
- Centre for Epidemic Response and Innovation (CERI), a leading epidemic and pandemic preparedness and response institute,
- South African Centre for Epidemiological Modelling and Analysis (SACEMA), a Department of Science and Innovation – National Research Foundation Centre of Excellence with a mission to improve health in Africa through epidemiological modelling and analysis.
DeepMind’s new partnership with AIMS builds on the company’s existing commitments in Africa, including DeepMind Scholarships at the University of the Witwatersrand and Makerere and Stellenbosch Universities, and the Deep Learning Indaba, an annual meeting of the African machine learning community designed to strengthen African machine learning and co-founded by DeepMind employees in 2017.
To find out more or apply for the programme, visit ai.aims.ac.za.
[Image – CC 0 Pixabay]
