AI in Africa: Basics Over Buzz

When Buti Manamela visited Lengau, Africa's fastest supercomputer, he had more prosaic technology in mind: electricity. South Africa's Deputy Minister of Higher Education, Science and Technology was at the Center for High Performance Computing in Cape Town for what should have been a showc...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) 2024-03, Vol.383 (6690), p.eado8276-eado8276
Main Author: Mutiso, Rose M
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Artificial intelligence
Computation
Education
Machine learning
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:When Buti Manamela visited Lengau, Africa's fastest supercomputer, he had more prosaic technology in mind: electricity. South Africa's Deputy Minister of Higher Education, Science and Technology was at the Center for High Performance Computing in Cape Town for what should have been a showcase tour of a facility providing the country with the computing power needed to run and analyze the kinds of complex models and huge datasets that underpin artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). But Manamela was there to better understand the impact of South Africa's rolling power blackouts on the center's operations. Lengau, which means "cheetah" in Setswana, is one of the most important outposts in Africa's AI infrastructure landscape; yet, it is struggling to operate at full capacity because of unreliable power.
ISSN:0036-8075
1095-9203
DOI:10.1126/science.ado8276