Addressing journalists in Abuja, Barrister Shittu said the essence of the celebration was to raise awareness of the potentials which ICT offers to advance economies and bridge the digital divides.
He said that analysts predict that intelligent machines, programmed to think and reason like the human mind, will revolutionize healthcare in the very near future.
“The purpose of World Telecommunication and Information Society Day (WTISD) is to help raise awareness of the possibilities that the use of the internet and other information and communication technologies can bring to societies and economies, as well as of ways to bridge the digital divide.
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“Artificial Intelligence-based technologies are already emerging as a key component of proactive tools and applications being used to help people live better lives by improving healthcare, education, finance, agriculture, transportation, and a wide range of other services”, the Minister said.
He said the theme of this year’s celebration which is “Enabling the Positive Use of Artificial Intelligence for all”, will focus on the potential of Artificial Intelligence to accelerate the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Shittu further noted that “Artificial Intelligence or AI is taking centre stage with a lot of advantages on people’s lives. AI’s potential power is being exploited and developed at an unprecedented speed. AI brings us many opportunities and challenges. AI will greatly change our economy and society.
“Government through the Ministry of Communication is poised to support stakeholders in Nigeria ICT ecosystem to create and strengthen a national AI ecosystem for sustainable development”.
He, therefore, said “the government will include Artificial Intelligence and coding in our educational agenda. The government will not only extend the focus on Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) for Artificial Intelligence Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (AISTEM).
“With this, our youths would be put on the right path as ICT and AI would have deeply affected the ways we labour and relate with one another in the fourth industrial era. The cars, satellites, computers, planes and phones of today were built by the children of yesterday, those of tomorrow would be built by children of today”.
This year’s celebration will be held on 25th-26th May at the University of Ibadan, Oyo
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