Artificial Intelligence (AI) is poised to revolutionise Nigeria’s critical sectors and democratize access to education, Mr. Chibuike Aguene, the first indigenous AI software developer in Nigeria, has said.
Speaking on Arise TV’s Newsnight, Aguene, who is also the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Bildup Technology, highlighted AI’s transformative potential, noting that it has redefined the concept of knowledge.
He urged the authorities to harness technological innovation, emphasising 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 in human, 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 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 at 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.
“So, 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 we stand a chance to lead because we need that more than any other country or continent presently.
“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 to to acquire knowledge in order to solve problems because 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 then access to additional knowledge becomes an asset.
“So, 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 a 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 way I like to describe it is that human race is on a reset and we are yet realize that. What I believe is that it is going to help us. This is the right time for us to ask what is education because it will now make us to rethink every thing we know from the ground up. And for us to do that, we have to look at the end from the beginning.
“What is the very essence of education? It’s about solving problems. It’s about making meaningful contributions to the society. So, memorizing something, answering that and getting marks will not help. Imagine in a class, you have a teacher to the students and everything that the teacher is going to say, for example, AI can actually provide that. At your finger tips, you have access to that knowledge.
“So, what is that education? That’s why we need to have this conversation. So, the way we access knowledge, grade students, this person is the best in class, we need to review it in the light of what AI is doing so that our focus will now be on solving problems”, he said.
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 2 to 3 months, that’s a term 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 place but the role will change.
“That is the beauty of AI. You can customize and train the AI depending on the students. In this case, you talk about students with autism. AI can definitely help. You train the AI and it will learn and becomes better. That’s is the reality. AI can help whether it’s a slow learner, students with disability, it is going to help.”
Aguene hinted that his company will soon launch a programme called AI Integrated Classroom across the federation to ensure that no child is left out.
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