Tuesday, April 29, 2025 - 4:00pm
Event Calendar Category
Other LIDS Events
Speaker Name
Chinasa Okolo
Affiliation
The Brookings Institution
Building and Room number
45-102
Chinasa Okolo
Fellow – Governance Studies, Center for Technology Innovation at the Brookings Institution
Website
"Broadening Perspectives on African Governance in the Era of AI"
The intensifying development of machine learning (ML) models and the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) tools, particularly generative AI, has dramatically shifted practices around data, spurring the development of new industries and unveiling unprecedented forms of exploitation. These new complexities around the production, refinement, and use of data indicate severe implications for African countries, including the widescale spread of generative AI-driven disinformation, increased manipulation exacerbated by digital platforms, and the continuation of colonial-era marginalization through datafication practices. These concerns elevate a need for comprehensive and harmonized data regulation efforts across the African continent, given existing challenges with fragmented policy implementation and limited capacity for regulatory enforcement. This talk examines the burgeoning AI and data governance landscape in Africa, analyzing the impact of AI on democratic processes, outlining best measures for data governance policy reform, and delineating priorities to democratize African participation in global AI governance.
Chinasa T. Okolo, Ph.D., is a Fellow at The Brookings Institution and a recent Computer Science Ph.D. graduate from Cornell University. Her research focuses on AI governance for the Global Majority, datafication and algorithmic marginalization, and the socioeconomic impact of data work. Dr. Okolo has been recognized as one of the world’s most influential people in AI by TIME, honored in the inaugural Forbes 30 Under 30 AI list, and advises numerous multilateral institutions, national governments, corporations, and nonprofits. In addition to her work at Brookings, Dr. Okolo serves as a Drafting Member of the Nigerian National AI Strategy, a Consulting Expert to the African Union AI Continental Strategy, an Expert Contributing Writer to the International AI Safety Report, and the Editor-in-Chief of ACM SIGCAS Computers and Society. Her research has been covered widely in media outlets and published at top-tier venues in human-computer interaction and sociotechnical computing.
Join us for an engaging seminar series featuring distinguished scholars exploring AI’s impact on society, ethics, governance, and human-computer interaction. Open to all students, faculty, and the public.