AI Conversations: Africa in Focus

Iterative Approach to Building Machine Learning Model in Business Ecosystem

In this episode of AI Conversations: Africa in Focus, we tackle a fundamental but often overlooked question: Why are you building that ML system in the first place? Segun explores the critical distinction between building machine learning models for research versus deploying them to solve real business problems. Too often, teams celebrate marginal gains in accuracy while ignoring whether their models are moving the needle on key business metrics like customer retention, conversions, or cost reduction. You’ll learn why success in a business setting demands more than a high-performing model—it demands alignment with business objectives, reliable and scalable systems, and a clear experimental approach, such as A/B testing, to measure actual impact. Whether you're a data scientist, ML engineer, or business leader interested in AI, this episode offers practical insights on how to build ML solutions that matter. Tune in to discover how to move from model obsession to business impact.

"DeepSeek's Disruption: Redefining AI Efficiency and Global Reactions"

Join this conversation as we unpack the science, politics, and future of AI in this exciting and insightful episode!In this episode ofAI Conversations: Africa in Focus, I dive into one of the most significant developments in the AI landscape — the release of the DeepSeek model series. This revolutionary model has achieved reasoning capacities comparable to OpenAI's O1 model series but at a fraction of the computational cost. I explore the innovative techniques behind this breakthrough, the implications for the future of AI, and how this could make training language models on consumer GPUs a reality. In this episode, I also discuss the global reactions to this disruption, including OpenAI's response, Nvidia's market shock, and the European Union’s surprising commitment of €54 million toward building large multilingual language models under the OpenEuroLLM project. Join this conversation as we unpack the science, politics, and future of AI in this exciting and insightful episode!

AI Conversations: Africa in Focus

Welcome back to the podcast! After a brief hiatus, we’re excited to return with renewed energy, a broader vision, and a new identity. In this episode, we address the reasons behind our break, reflect on our journey so far, and introduce the rebranding of our show from “Applying AI: The AI in Africa Podcast” to “AI Conversations: Africa in Focus.” We’ll continue to explore how artificial intelligence and machine learning can address Africa’s unique challenges while expanding our scope to include global AI trends, groundbreaking research, ethical concerns, and transformative applications across industries. Join us as we discuss what’s next for the podcast, how we’re reaching a larger audience, and the exciting changes to come. Tune in and be part of this new chapter as we bring insightful conversations with experts and thought leaders shaping the dynamic world of AI.

Transformative effect of Artificial Intelligence on Critical Sector of Nigeria's Economy

In this episode, we introduce the pressing issues plaguing our nation and what transformative solutions AI could bring to them, from the farmer-herder crisis to unemployment and insurgency. These challenges, deeply rooted in various sectors including agriculture, education, security, finance, and industry, have evolved over time, often unnoticed until they become full-blown crises. However, the advent of artificial intelligence offers a beacon of hope. AI models can predict future outcomes by harnessing vast datasets containing invaluable patterns and behaviors and offer innovative solutions to longstanding problems. Imagine the potential impact on security if AI were integrated into Nigeria’s armed forces operating tools, it could aid in reconnaissance, intelligence mapping, and proactive threat prevention. AI’s transformative power extends beyond security. It promises to revolutionize businesses, education, and other critical sectors, offering personalized solutions tailored to individual needs and predictive insights that enable proactive problem-solving. Dr. Bosun Tijani's visionary pursuit of AI technology underscores the urgency for Nigeria to embrace this transformative tool. With 45 pioneers actively engaged in using AI to address challenges across various sectors, the stage is set for a paradigm shift in Nigeria's technological landscape. And in the end, Nigeria would be actively part of the ongoing AI conversations in our next episode, I will talk more about how my research projects on the Personalized Intelligence Tutoring System in Education would improve Nigeria’s education outcomes however I was hoping you could think about what it would mean for students to have a system that can provide individualized guidance and support, and assess their understanding of a topic, for example, identifying with deep accuracy areas of difficulty and strengths and offer targeted explanations, feedback, and practice exercise. Our subsequent episodes would be to invite some grantees of the National Artificial Intelligence Scheme where we’ll go into their specific AI research projects and their potential to tackle Nigeria's most pressing challenges. Don't miss out on the opportunity to be part of this groundbreaking conversation and explore the endless possibilities of artificial intelligence.

Scaling the impact of artificial intelligence in African Businesses Part 2

In this latest episode of Applying AI: The AI in Africa Podcast, Segun welcomes listeners to the first episode of the year 2024, continuing the discussion from the previous episode. The focus is on the challenges of scaling African businesses with artificial intelligence and the importance of identifying the impact before attempting to scale. In this episode, Segun delves into the essential question of whether one can scale the impact of solutions that haven't been implemented yet. He emphasizes the necessity of understanding the "why" behind building an artificial intelligence model for a specific business and explores the key questions that business owners or machine learning engineers should ask themselves or their clients. The overarching theme is that building an AI model is a means to an end, and the episode highlights the importance of defining the goals and purposes the model aims to achieve.