The first indigenous AI software developer in Nigeria, Mr, Chibuike Aguene, has said that Artificial Intelligence has what it takes to turn around Nigeria’s critical sectors and democratise access to education.
Speaking on Arise TV’s Newsnight on Monday, Aguene, who doubles as the Chief Executive Officer of Bildup Technology, highlighted AI’s transformative capability, noting that it has redefined the concept of knowledge acquisition globally.
He urged governments across all tiers, to harness the technological innovation, noting that Nigeria has a unique opportunity to take the lead in AI advancement and shape the future of education and economic development.
He said: “For the first time, we have an intelligent companion that can reason, think and make judgements. This is the reality that we face today. This might be the greatest invention we have so far in human history. But we are yet to understand the magnitude of what is happening especially in Nigeria and Africa.
“AI is revolutionizing every industry. Human race as we know has actually changed with AI. So, this is a new era. It’s an exciting time to be alive and what I always say is that Nigeria should not prepare for AI era. Nigeria should lead.
“During the mobile phone era, we were preparing. We didn’t provide leadership; social media era, we also prepared. We didn’t provide leadership. This is Artificial Intelligence era. I think it’s time for us to lead. We have once in a generation opportunity to level the playing field when it comes to access to quality education compared to what is happening maybe in the United States or China.
“This is our opportunity to give every child in Nigeria and Africa access to quality education without any barriers. As of today, you see there is a lot of barriers in accessing quality education. You can talk about lack of infrastructure, student to teacher ratio, so many barriers that exist in accessing quality education. But thanks to AI. All these can be in the past if Nigeria will provide the leadership and that’s exactly what we are doing as Bildup AI startup.
“We have decided to take the lead because we believe that innovation is driven by young people. We don’t want to sit back and wait for United States or China to invent things for us. We decided to take that bold step to ensure that Nigeria provides the leadership that is needed in this era and I believe very strongly that we stand a chance to lead.
“We may have different challenges but this is an opportunity for us to educate a youthful population that will not just have certificates but will actually have the knowledge to make meaningful contributions to the world. I will say this: we need to sit and have a conversation at this time about what Artificial Intelligence is.”
Aguene dismissed the speculations that AI will make students lazy.
“This has come up a lot whenever this conversation is taking place. I think we need to re-interrogate what it means to be educated because that will help us to answer this. Is education going to a place called school and then, getting certificate or is it to acquire knowledge in order to solve problems?
“If it is about just to go and get a certificate, then access to additional information becomes a threat but education is about acquisition of knowledge to solve problems.
“AI is not going to make anybody lazy. It is going to test whatever capacity that we have. I will give you a typical example. We run an AI startup and everyday we are solving problems at the office. Now, if you have someone that is a graduate, may be you create a data set of all the information that person gained throughout from primary, secondary and university, if there is a challenge, can that information alone help that person to solve that problem?
“You will see that it is practically not possible. At that point, you need access to additional information. You need to research. So, what AI has done is to be your companion to give you access to additional information. What would ordinarily take you may be, 3 years, you can do it in a matter of months.That is a groundbreaking innovation that is going to help humanity across every sector, no just technology. Every sector is going to be affected.”
The technology expert further stated that AI will empower teachers and help them to accomplish more tasks easily.
He added that special children will also be aided by AI in their studies.
“AI will help and empower teachers. It will give them 80 percent of their time back. And a student can accomplish what will take two to three months in a matter of days, maybe less than two weeks. This is the power of AI.
“Teachers can have insightful feedback about different students even before the teacher will enter the class. If a student is struggling with a concept, the teacher can get notifications. This is a new era. Students can learn with the AI while the teacher can provide guidance and mentorship. So, teachers have a role to play but the role will change,” he added.
