This book examines the unique issues surrounding access to and use of Generative AI both for industrial and non-industrial purposes in Africa. Recent global hype around GenAI has shifted the academic conversation towards examining the impact and effective use of generative AI for different purposes. However equally important issues such as digital divide and access to GenAI tools in developing economies remains underdiscussed. Most studies on digital divide show that Africa still lags in terms of access and use of GenAI both for industrial and non-industrial purposes. There are also fears that the nature and design of these technologies have the potential to perpetuate digital coloniality, given that Western technologies are contextually debatable in terms of how they strive to address algorithmic bias, exploitation and exclusion of diverse groups particularly in developing economies. This book engages with these issues to unveil the dynamics of digital divide with specific focus on access and uses of GenAI technologies both for social and industrial purposes. It examines how marginalized groups and start-ups are exploiting social media and industrial GenAI tools, including the opportunities and challenges they face. The book reflects case studies from African digital economies such as that of Nigeria, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Malawi, South Africa and Mozambique. From such case studies the volume proffers methodological and epistemological ways in which Gen AI can be effectively useful, advocating for Afrocentric approach to Gen AI in African industrial and non-industrial settings.

Limukani Mathe is a Research Associate at the University of South Africa. He has previously served as Lecturer and Research Fellow at the University of North-West and the University of Johannesburg, South Africa. His research interests are at the intersection of democracy and digital technologies with a particular focus on web-based communities (commentary forums and social media), news sites, election studies, indigenous language media and journalism practices in the Global South.

Albert Sharra is a Joint-research Fellow at the University of Witwatersrand and University of Edinburgh and an Honorary Fellow in the Centre of African Studies at the University of Edinburgh. He is a multi-award-winning journalist with more than 10 years of newsroom experience. He has partnered several international organisations, including Konrad Adenauer Stiftung’s Media Africa Programme, Friedrich Naumann Foundation and the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung Multilateral Dialogue Geneva and trained more than 500 journalists in Africa. His research covers the intersection of new technologies, culture and society with a focus on decoloniality, journalism, media and politics. He has published two volumes and several peer reviewed papers in top journals including Social Media + Society. He is also a Digital Media Mentor at the International Press Institute (IPI).