Artificial Intelligence (AI) has rapidly evolved in recent years and has become increasingly integrated into various industries, including Nigeria’s economy.

One type of AI is chatbots like ChatGPT, which are becoming more common in customer service and other industries.

While AI can have numerous benefits for businesses, there are also concerns about the potential threat it could pose to the Nigerian economy.

WHAT IS CHATGPT?

ChatGPT, which is a combination of ‘Chat’ and ‘Generative Pre-Trained Transformer’ – a complex neural network based on the revolutionary attention concept – is a chatbot inaugurated in November 2022 and built on top of OpenAI’s GPT-3 family of large language models. According to its manufacturers, it has been fine-tuned using both supervised and reinforcement learning techniques.

One of the main concerns is that AI chatbots could replace human customer service representatives and other workers, resulting in job losses.

This is particularly concerning in Nigeria, where the unemployment rate is already high, and the economy is struggling to create new jobs.

If more businesses in Nigeria adopt AI chatbots, there could be a further loss of jobs and reduced opportunities for people who rely on employment in these sectors.

Additionally, there is a fear that AI chatbots could exacerbate the economic inequality in Nigeria. If businesses use AI chatbots instead of hiring human workers, it could lead to further concentration of wealth in the hands of the few who control these technologies.

This could also lead to a concentration of tech jobs in major cities, further marginalizing people in rural areas who may not have access to education or technology to take advantage of the new opportunities.

However, AI chatbots also have the potential to improve the Nigerian economy by increasing efficiency and productivity. With more efficient customer service, businesses can serve more customers in less time, leading to increased revenue and growth.

AI chatbots can also help businesses reduce costs by automating repetitive tasks, freeing up resources for other purposes.

According to a software engineer and founder/Chief Executive Officer of Clamp, a software payment solution for small businesses, Mr Kelvin Bawa, in an interview with newsmen on the 12th, of February 2023, he stated that the economic value of ChatGPT to the African tech space was immense.

He said, “While it has the potential to bring about many positive economic benefits, it is important that the potential dangers are also taken into consideration, to ensure that its use is responsible and ethical. As such, it is crucial that governments and businesses in Africa take a proactive approach to regulating and harnessing the power of AI for the good of their citizens and economies.”

Bawa, however, noted that the impact of AI in the African tech space had been significant, with ChatGPT being one of the leading examples.

“ChatGPT has allowed businesses to increase their efficiency and productivity while providing a better customer experience.

“Furthermore, ChatGPT is also providing new job opportunities in the African tech space, as businesses look to hire experts in AI and natural language processing,” he added.

To ensure that the benefits of AI are distributed equally, the Nigerian government and businesses must take proactive measures to ensure that the adoption of AI is responsible and equitable.

By Biztellers

The Executive Governor of Osun State, Senator Ademola Adeleke has directed immediate establishment of a support desk for Osun tech innovators and entrepreneurs to access the recently launched 618 USD tech fund by the African Development Bank (AFDB).

In response to the tech fund which was a collaboration between the AfDB and the Federal Government of Nigeria, Governor Adeleke expressed the readiness of his government to tap into the opportunities in furtherance of the digital economy agenda of his administration.

Governor Adeleke who was full of praises for the AFDB president, Dr Akinwumi Adesina, said his administration has created enabling environment for Osun tech ecosystem, citing the recently unfolded state ICT Policy, State Tech Innovation Policy, domestication of Nigeria’s Startup Act, the flag off of the state’s broadband fiber optic project and the establishment of a Digital Advisory Board, adding ” My state is in a hurry to be a tech hub for South West.”

“I am delighted to appreciate the African Development Bank which has set up a $618 million fund to support the technology and creative sector in Nigeria. This is a great initiative spearheaded by Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina, the Nigerian President of the African Development Bank in partnership with our Federal Government and I would like to commend him for his visionary leadership and dedication to the development of our country.

“Dr. Adesina has consistently demonstrated his commitment to supporting the growth and development of African economies, and his efforts towards the development of the technology and creative sector in Nigeria are commendable. I am confident that this fund will go a long way in supporting innovation, job creation, and economic growth in our country.

“As the Governor of Osun State, I am pleased to announce that the Ministry of Innovation, Science, and Technology has been instructed to set up a desk to assist all technology and creative sector entrepreneurs in Osun State to apply and access this fund. The desk will provide comprehensive guidance and support to all interested applicants, ensuring that the application process is seamless and efficient.

“We are also exploring partnerships with the African Development Bank to support programs in the technology and creative sector in our state. We will be reaching out to the bank soon to discuss how we can collaborate and leverage this fund and other opportunities to create a vibrant and innovative ecosystem in Osun State.

“I commend the African Development Bank for domiciling the fund in the Bank of Industry to prevent it from being politicized. This is a great step towards ensuring that the fund is used for its intended purpose and will benefit the technology and creative sector in Nigeria.

“I encourage all technology and creative sector entrepreneurs in Osun State to engage directly with the Ministry and register as a stakeholder operating within the state. This is a significant opportunity for our entrepreneurs to grow their businesses, while also contributing to the growth and development of our state”, the State Governor stated.

While pledging to unfold the second phase of the state digital economy agenda in due course, Governor Adeleke called on Osun elite “to join his administration in the drive to harness the potential of the technology and creative sector and create a vibrant and innovative ecosystem in Osun State”

Spokesperson to the Executive Governor

 Ikon Science, a leading global provider of geo-prediction and open subsurface knowledge management software and services, today announced the release of RokDoc Version 2023.2.

As global energy demand continues to drive more efficiencies, teams are challenged to find innovative approaches to improve their workflows. To meet this challenge, the latest version of RokDoc expands functionalities in machine learning (ML), rock physics, and provides new visualization measurement tools to document success.

The new release features the addition of Extreme Gradient Boosting (XGB), one of the most popular and best algorithms for regression and classification problems. XGB is built using supervised machine-learning (ML) decision trees, ensemble learning, and optimized gradient boosting techniques. It focuses on speed, flexibility, and model performance. The latest developments improve ML workflow results while providing data statistics plots to support geoscience workflow documentation.

In this release of RokDoc, Ikon Science has made inversion QC easier with a track manager to ensure user-made track-ordering changes occur across all wells. Vertical zoom and user-added tracks are preserved upon re-calculation of the inversion for results comparison and documentation. Work becomes more efficient with less time focused on visual settings and more time spent refining results.

“Today we launch version 2023.2 of RokDoc, which focuses on useability and visualization.  Users can now interrogate and understand data to explore implications of elastic and petrophysical property variations more deeply,” said Alan Mur, Product Manager for QI Applications, Ikon Science.

Other notable enhancements include:

• Cross-plot 3D evolves with a new control interface, multi-instance of wells to show modelling scenarios, and enhanced visualization options
• User experience enhancements including Flip Line for 3D/4D sessions, RokDoc directory settings manager, Component Volume Selection in Seismic Track, Wavelet QC View, Roy White and Statistical Wavelet Estimation
• Map volume display from project viewer extracts are in the background, keeping RokDoc responsive

For more information, visit www.ikonscience.com or email info@ikonscience.com.