IBM Research

Hao, Karen. 2019. “The Future of AI Research Is in Africa.” MIT Technology Review (blog). June 21, 2019.

AO: This MIT Technology Review post describes the machine learning community on the continent and places companies like IBM front and center of these "blossoming" communities. There is an important critical labor and tech training component to be unpacked here. 

The article quotes...Read more

AOk. African problems are "information" problems

AO: This quote (see copy-pasted below) states that IBM (Research) believed that "many of the hardest problems in our world today, particularly in Africa, are problems of information." The speaker...Read more

"Solving Africa's grand challenges"

This research agenda is driven by profit and economic interests although the articulated narrative is about "solving Africa's grand challenges" which he states are "well-known." But then as he...Read more

AOk. "'Lucy' reminds us that we are all connected...to those hard problems...of Africa"

This quote (copy-pasted below) details why IBM decided not to use the name "Watson" which is how they have branded their super-computer around the world but when they bring the technology to...Read more

AOk. Cross-domain relationships

This quote (copy-pasted below) argues that a technology solution like "Lucy" will help to understand cross-domain relationships. I think this is one of the most common benefits touted of...Read more

Keynote Presentation at IBM Research Lab. (2014, March 18). [Transcript based on personal recording].

0:02 CTO, IBM Watson We're very glad to be here in Africa. As you know, late last year, we opened our 4th research lab in IBM, here in Africa. And Africa represents to us an incredible, very exciting set of opportunities. And that's for many reasons, okay, not the least of which is the African...Read more

AOk. Data is data is data.

Qualitative data is not distinguished explicitly here as such. The speaker focuses rather on the data's format (e.g. textual, sensor data, etc). The way it is described, it sounds like all data...Read more

AOk. "...if you torture the data, for long enough, you can get it to confess to almost anything"

This quote (see copy-pasted below) articulates why using machine learning is more robust... because "if you torture the data, for long enough, you can get it to confess to almost anything."...Read more

Indigenous knowledge vs technical knowledge

Most of the speaker's presentation is focused on the "technical" aspects of cognitive computing then he mentions "indigenous knowledge" in his last few minutes of closing (stating that there...Read more

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