By Dr Mmaki Jantjies
If towards the end of the global pandemic you’d told data science researchers that, just two years later, large language models would be dominating dinner table discussions, they’d have likely greeted your prediction with a healthy dose of scepticism. Yet it’s undoubtedly the case that the past two years have been dominated by conversations about Artificial Intelligence and its impact on various countries across the world.
Globally and in South Africa, policy discussions have not only engaged with the importance of responsible AI and data protection training for organisations seeking to use this technology but the importance of having skills which contribute towards the growth of the digital revolution in order for South Africa to remain competitive.
Primarily, AI mainly came to prominence thanks to breakthroughs in large language models (LLMs) accelerated by the increased availability of training data. Parallel to these developments was the availability of enhanced computing processing power through improved hardware, led by investment in the technology providers making advancements in deep learning models. Considering the increased use of such technologies, how is South Africa prepared to leverage this digital “revolution” across sectors of the national economy?
Every year South Africa’s telecommunications and ICT sector hosts SATNAC, the Southern Africa Telecommunication Networks and Applications Conference which is the longest standing conference anchored on a public partnership. However, it was actually 26 years ago when the National Research Foundation through the Thrip programme, telecom organisations in the private sector and ICT providers, partnered with government and universities in South Africa to create a sustainable programme aimed at ensuring a pipeline of sustained technology skills. The partnership created a host of research centres of excellence that would be hosted by higher education institutions across the country. While coordinated by Telkom, the centres were open for investment from telecommunications and ICT providers across the country and the world.
Since then, the Telkom Centers of Research Excellence (COE) have bridged the gap between South African R&D Innovation led by researchers who principally train Masters and PhD students in areas such as computer science and engineering. Research delivered by the COE is then presented at the annual SATNAC conference amongst other plenary sessions.