Pivots, Perseverances & Pleasures
This is the final report in Pollicy’s three-part series on African Women in AI. Launched in 2021, this project frames analysis of the state of artificial intelligence (AI) in Africa through a gender lens by exploring the impact of AI on women. This third and final paper focuses on the lived experiences of African women working to shape various fields of AI, including academia, energy, climate change and education. As diversity amongst researchers is a major challenge in combating AI bias, this paper seeks to answer what the diversity problems and challenges are for Africa’s female AI researchers. In this research, we ask the question of gender repeatedly, and frame what the pathways, challenges and solutions are from the specific viewpoints and perspectives of our respondents. We also specifically interrogate how AI is transformed and applied to the African context, particularly for women and gender overall.