Nigeria Pioneers AI Development in Africa with Launch of First Multilingual LLM
Summary:
The Nigerian Government, through its Ministry of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy, has launched the country's first multilingual large language model (LLM), marking a significant step towards leadership in African artificial intelligence (AI) development. The LLM was announced following a four-day AI workshop, with a collaboration of various tech firms and agencies facilitating its launch. The project, aimed at boosting AI solutions development, will be supported by over 7,000 fellows from the 3MTT Nigeria program. The country also drafted a National AI Strategy, enhanced collaborations for AI advancements, and has received $3.5 million in seed funding from various partners.
The multilingual large language model (LLM), a first for Nigeria, has been introduced by the Nigerian government, under the auspices of the Ministry of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy, in a bid to advance Nigeria's dominance in the realm of artificial intelligence (AI) within the African landscape. The announcement of the LLM's inauguration, according to Nigeria’s Communications Minister, Dr. Bosun Tijani, took place on Friday, April 19, originating from an AI workshop facilitated in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, earlier in the week.
The development of the AI utility was made possible through a joint effort between the Nigerian AI enterprise Awarritech, international tech institution DataDotOrg, the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), and the National Centre for AI and Robotics (NCAIR), Dr. Tijani explained. He expressed that the LLM would be trained in five languages with limited resources, including accented English, to improve language representation in present data sets used for the creation of AI solutions. He also said that the project would receive support from more than 7,000 fellows from Nigeria's 3MTT program.
Dr. Tijani revealed that the collaborative endeavour involving more than 120 AI professionals had yielded an inaugural draft of the country's National AI Strategy, along with considerable progress and partnerships aimed at driving AI advancement in Nigeria over the four-day period. Furthermore, he declared a partnership between 21st Century Technologies, Galaxy Backbone, and NCAIR Nigeria, intended to accelerate a set of vital AI initiatives for the nation.
21st Century Technology is set to finance the purchase of GPUs, aimed at increasing the national computing ability. These resources will assist local researchers, startups, and government institutions in managing AI projects based at the GBB Data Centre in the FCT.
During the workshop, Dr. Tijani also announced the revitalization of NCAIR, a designated entity formed to support research and development in AI, robotics, UAV, IoT, and their real-world applications across Nigeria's chief sectors. He confirmed that an augment of NCAIR's capacity will make it a more effective hub for digital innovation and research.
Dr. Tijani shared that the National AI Strategy benefits from a $3.5 million seed fund backed by domestic and international entities including UNDP, UNESCO, Meta, Google, Microsoft, Luminate, Lagos Business School, Data Science Nigeria, NITDA, and other bodies under the Federal Ministry of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy. The said fund includes a direct funding of $1.5 million complemented by a further $2 million invested into the pilot program by 21st Century Technologies.
Published At
4/20/2024 10:22:35 AM
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