In recent months, AI chatbots such as ChatGPT, Gemini and Copilot have improved in understanding African languages and cultures.
This is the product of a rise in the availability of data needed to teach tech how to speak and understand various African dialects.
Behind this progress are people such as Lorna Omondi Ogolla, who are working to ensure the technologies do not overlook the continent.
As Partnerships Lead for Google Research’s machine learning and AI initiatives in Africa, Ms Ogolla helps build networks that ensure African languages are covered.
"The goal is making sure that when Africans use products from these tech giants, the systems understand their context and produce more relevant, useful and fair results."
Her work supports the collection of African language data, the expansion of local datasets and the development of AI models that is shifting the narrative that African languages are ‘low-resource’.
“The goal is making sure that when Africans use products from these tech giants, the systems understand their context and produce more relevant, useful and fair results,” she says.
In the years since AI became front-page news, there has been extensive discussions on how it will change society: its effect on jobs, elections, science, and what it means for the future of humanity.
That conversation has centred on the rich countries where it has been developed.
Lorna is focused on changing this narrative. “I am energised by converting chaos into order and efficiency. I’m a force multiplier,” says the Kenya High School alumna.
Over the past eight years at the tech giant, Ms Ogolla, who describes herself as a problem-solver.
Her civil engineering training at the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where she graduated in 2012, has come in handy.
Whether she is helping shape the future of AI, writing, baking or playing the piano, she gives everything she does her all.
–Dennis Musau