Toward an African Agenda for AI Safety
Abstract
This paper maps Africa's distinctive AI risk profile, from deepfake fuelled electoral interference and data colonial dependency to compute scarcity, labour disruption and disproportionate exposure to climate driven environmental costs. While major benefits are promised to accrue, the availability, development and adoption of AI also mean that African people and countries face particular AI safety risks, from large scale labour market disruptions to the nefarious use of AI to manipulate public opinion. To date, African perspectives have not been meaningfully integrated into global debates and processes regarding AI safety, leaving African stakeholders with limited influence over the emerging global AI safety governance agenda. While there are Computer Incident Response Teams on the continent, none hosts a dedicated AI Safety Institute or office. We propose a five-point action plan centred on (i) a policy approach that foregrounds the protection of the human rights of those most vulnerable to experiencing the harmful socio-economic effects of AI; (ii) the establishment of an African AI Safety Institute; (iii) promote public AI literacy and awareness; (iv) development of early warning system with inclusive benchmark suites for 25+ African languages; and (v) an annual AU-level AI Safety & Security Forum.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2508.13179,
title = {Toward an African Agenda for AI Safety},
author = {Samuel T. Segun and Rachel Adams and Ana Florido and Scott Timcke and Jonathan Shock and Leah Junck and Fola Adeleke and Nicolas Grossman and Ayantola Alayande and Jerry John Kponyo and Matthew Smith and Dickson Marfo Fosu and Prince Dawson Tetteh and Juliet Arthur and Stephanie Kasaon and Odilile Ayodele and Laetitia Badolo and Paul Plantinga and Michael Gastrow and Sumaya Nur Adan and Joanna Wiaterek and Cecil Abungu and Kojo Apeagyei and Luise Eder and Tegawende Bissyande},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2508.13179},
year = {2025}
}
Comments
28 pages, 2 figures