Al's next frontier isn't where you might expect | Hardy Pemhiwa

人工智能的下一个前沿可能出乎你的预料 | 哈迪·佩米瓦

You're listening to ted talks daily where we bring you new ideas to spark your curiosity every day. I'm your host elise Hu. One question being asked across the world right now is will AI take my job? It's a valid question and fear, but can you imagine a world where AI actually helps increase opportunities in his talk? Hardy peia, whose company is helping to bring broadband Internet to all of Africa, tells us why developing AI infrastructure in Africa will help to multiply and amplify human capacity on the continent. He says the right question to ask is when will the world catch up to what Africa's doing with AI?

您正在收听的是TED每日谈，我们每天为您带来激发好奇心的新想法。我是主持人Elise Hu。当前全世界都在问的一个问题是：AI会抢走我的工作吗？这是个合理的问题和担忧，但你能想象一个AI实际上有助于增加机会的世界吗？在他的演讲中，哈迪·佩米瓦——他的公司正致力于为整个非洲带来宽带互联网——告诉我们为何在非洲发展AI基础设施将有助于成倍提升和放大非洲大陆的人力潜能。他说，应该问的正确问题是：世界何时才能赶上非洲在AI领域的作为？

I've been meeting a lot of people of late who ask me this question. When will Africa catch up to the AI revolution? And I look at them with a lot of humility. And I say to them, you are asking the wrong question. And of course, a lot of them look at me with surprise. I say here is the right question. When will the world catch up? To what Africa is doing. With AI.

最近我遇到了很多人问我这个问题。非洲何时才能赶上AI革命？我十分谦逊地看着他们。然后对他们说，你们问错了问题。当然，很多人惊讶地看着我。我说，这才是正确的问题。世界何时才能赶上？非洲正在做的事情。在AI领域。

But before I dive into AI, you've heard a lot about AI. Let me take you on a geography lesson. Africa. Is big. It's54 countries. 1~6 billion people. And Africa is young. I'm one of the older ones. And I consider myself young. These are digital natives. Incredible digital skills. But it wasn't always like this.

但在我深入探讨AI之前，你们已经听过很多关于AI的事了。让我带你们上一节地理课。非洲。很大。它由54个国家组成。大约16亿人口。而且非洲很年轻。我是年纪较大的人之一。而我认为自己年轻。这些都是数字原住民。拥有惊人的数字技能。但情况并非一直如此。

Thirty years ago, there were more telephone lines in new York city than the whole of sub saharan Africa. But that was thirty years ago. In thirty years, here is what has happened. We now have a billion mobile phone connections. We now have1~1 billion mobile money accounts. That's up from only300,000,010 years ago. Is driving financial inclusion at an unprecedented scale. Today if I needed to pay my barber. The food fell on the side of the road. My utility Bill. My mechanic. It's easy, it's accessible, it's convenient and it's cheap. I use my mobile money account, whether it's eco, cash or mesa, it's one of those two.

三十年前，纽约市的电话线数量比整个撒哈拉以南非洲还要多。但那是三十年前。在三十年里，这里发生了这些变化。我们现在有十亿移动电话连接。我们现在有大约11亿移动货币账户。而十年前只有3亿。这正以前所未有的规模推动金融普惠。今天，如果我需要付钱给我的理发师。付钱给路边摊贩。付我的水电账单。付给我的修理工。都很容易、可及、方便且便宜。我使用我的移动货币账户，无论是EcoCash还是M-Pesa，就是这两个之一。

But Africa's demographic dividends is also one of its biggest challenges. I know a lot of people think of Africa and they think of poverty and disease and wars, but this is not our biggest problem. Our biggest challenge is youth unemployment. And I think it's one challenge that AI is uniquely placed to solve. And Africa has been able to embrace technology at an unprecedented scale.

但非洲的人口红利也是其最大的挑战之一。我知道很多人想到非洲就会想到贫困、疾病和战争，但这并非我们最大的问题。我们最大的挑战是青年失业。而我认为这是一个AI特别适合去解决的挑战。非洲已经能够以前所未有的规模拥抱技术。

So now that we've been through geography, let me take you into the future. Please meet the MRI. The MRI is24. She's a high school graduate. Born in Zimbabwean, raised in Zimbabwe like me. Like millions of her peers. She is Tech savvy. She can type faster than any of you. She knows all the shortcuts on WhatsApp. But up until now, her future would have been bleak. She would have been as unemployed as any of her peers. But for the fact that she has just graduated from one of the air academies that we have on the continent.

那么，既然我们已经上过地理课了，让我带你们进入未来。请认识一下MRI。MRI24岁。她是一名高中毕业生。出生在津巴布韦，像我一样在津巴布韦长大。像她数百万的同龄人一样。她精通技术。她打字比你们任何人都快。她知道WhatsApp上所有的快捷操作。但直到不久前，她的未来还可能是黯淡的。她会像她的许多同龄人一样失业。但事实是，她刚从我们大陆上的一所AI学院毕业。

Early morning the MRI is teaching math, using AI to over200 students across five schools. These schools have got free Internet. By midday, the MRI has joined the local ness at a health clinic that is not too far away from where she lives. Helping with diagnosis, malaria, tb. Billaz yet that's a disease, by the way. And by the evening. Some of her neighbors are coming to see MRI with soil samples and with diseased plants that she takes photos of, and she is able to tell them what fertilizer, what seeds, what's happening to their maize crop. Yields are now up40%. Where she lives.

清晨，MRI正在使用AI为五所学校的200多名学生教授数学。这些学校有免费互联网。中午时分，MRI加入了离她住处不远的当地一家健康诊所。帮助诊断疟疾、结核病。顺便说一下，Billaz也是一种疾病。到了傍晚。一些邻居带着土壤样本和患病的植物来找MRI，她给它们拍照，就能告诉他们该用什么肥料、什么种子，他们的玉米作物出了什么问题。她所在地区的产量现在提高了40%。

But yuraai is not a teacher. She's not a nurse. She is not an agronist. What is? She's what we call. An AI amplified community entrepreneur. She paid for each of these services that I described through her mobile money accounts. And she's ending three times more than the peers in her local area and even those that are in the urban areas. She is solving the problem of the shortage of teachers that is so pervasive across most of Africa. This is how we're going to solve the problem of a shortage of doctors that is so pervasive across most of Africa. And in many of the rural areas of Africa where there's so much arable land, there is such a shortage of agronomists, and now yurai powered with a smartphone. And in AI assistance. Is able to solve these problems.

但Yurai不是老师。她不是护士。她也不是农艺师。那她是什么？她是我们所称的。一位AI赋能的社区创业者。她通过自己的移动货币账户为她提供的每一项我描述的服务获得报酬。她的收入是她当地同龄人甚至城市地区同龄人的三倍多。她正在解决教师短缺这个在非洲大部分地区普遍存在的问题。这就是我们将如何解决在非洲大部分地区普遍存在的医生短缺问题。在非洲许多拥有大量可耕地的农村地区，农艺师非常短缺，而现在，拥有一部智能手机的Yurai。在AI助手协助下。能够解决这些问题。

Now I'm looking at you and you're asking yourselves, how is this even possible? I'm glad you asked. My name is hardi fa. I am the CEO of cassava technologies. We are the company that has literally connected Africa. We're connecting more than300 towns and cities across Africa with fibre broadbands, bringing Internet to more than500 million people. Across the continent. And we have now added a platform of interconnected data centers. That are AI ready?

现在我看着你们，你们在问自己，这怎么可能？很高兴你们这么问。我的名字是哈迪·法。我是Cassava Technologies的CEO。我们就是那个真正连接了非洲的公司。我们正在用光纤宽带连接非洲300多个城镇和城市，为超过5亿人带来互联网。遍及整个大陆。并且我们现在增加了一个互联数据中心平台。它们已经为AI做好准备？

And this is where AI meets the infrastructure that cassava has been building. Our plan now is to build Africa's first AI factory. Using local data algorithms, local compute capacity to produce local intelligence. We're building an AI ecosystem for those that were previously excluded. Because we understand that without AI infrastructure. Africa is going to fall further behind.

而这正是AI与Cassava一直在建设的基础设施交汇之处。我们现在的计划是建设非洲第一个AI工厂。利用本地数据算法、本地计算能力来生产本地智能。我们正在为那些先前被排除在外的人建立一个AI生态系统。因为我们明白，没有AI基础设施。非洲将会更加落后。

Our AI factory is about bringing breakthroughs. It's about bringing job creation is about powering yai's dream of being a doctor, an agronomist and a teacher. Powered with mobile broadband. Mobile money. Fiber broadband and now? Gpus that we've been able to get from Nvidia. We are bringing to life. AI infrastructure for Africa to compete with everybody else in this AI age.

我们的AI工厂旨在带来突破。它旨在创造就业，旨在助力Yurai成为医生、农艺师和老师的梦想。由移动宽带赋能。由移动货币赋能。光纤宽带，而现在呢？还有我们能够从英伟达获得的GPU。我们正在将这些变为现实。建设让非洲能在这个AI时代与所有人竞争的AI基础设施。

This is Africa s AI revolution. It's not about substitution. Is about multiplication. We want to amplify human capacity, and we want to eliminate impossibility by bringing AI to those that the world had previously excluded.

这就是非洲的AI革命。它不是关于替代。而是关于倍增。我们想要放大人类的能力，并且我们希望通过将AI带给那些先前被世界排除在外的人来消除不可能。

So what is our AI factory going to do already? We're powering more than12,000 AI developers, more than1100 startups across southern Africa, east Africa, west Africa and north Africa. 285 universities. Are going to be using our AI factory. And because we've already been working with enterprises for the first thirty years67,000 of Africa's largest enterprises, from banks to tel, calls to state owned enterprises, are all embracing this vision of an AI powered future for the continent.

那么我们的AI工厂已经在做什么了呢？我们正在为超过12,000名AI开发者、超过1,100家遍布南部非洲、东部非洲、西部非洲和北部非洲的初创公司提供支持。285所大学。将使用我们的AI工厂。而且因为我们在过去三十年里已经与企业合作，非洲67,000家最大的企业，从银行到电信公司，再到国有企业，都在拥抱这个为非洲大陆描绘的AI驱动未来的愿景。

On a continent where the median age is only nineteen. This is not just an improvement of digital infrastructure. This is a revolution that we are bringing to Africa. Because the next1 billion users of AI. Are not going to use AI the same way that the first1 billion have been using it.

在一个中位年龄只有19岁的大陆上。这不仅仅是数字基础设施的改进。这是我们正在带给非洲的一场革命。因为下一个10亿AI用户。不会以第一个10亿用户使用它的方式来使用AI。

They are coming from places where a single AI, amplified human must do the work of ted. They are building AI to not only diagnose diseases. That some of us have never heard of, but to teach math and physics and chemistry in swahili, in the beet, in zulu, in shauna, you name it. They are building AI in order to detect counterfeit medicines. Africa has a big problem with counterfeit medicines. They are building AI to diagnose crops. They're building AI to amplify human possibility because in Africa, constraints have always driven innovation. That's why pay as you go. Came from Africa. That's why mobile money came from Africa, because we didn't have bank accounts to protect. And that's why AI models that are trained on African realities are more robust, more efficient and more inclusive.

他们来自那些一个由AI赋能的人必须完成十个人工作的地方。他们正在构建AI，不仅是为了诊断疾病。那些我们有些人从未听说过的疾病，而且是为了用斯瓦希里语、贝特语、祖鲁语、绍纳语等语言教授数学、物理和化学，应有尽有。他们正在构建AI以检测假药。非洲面临严重的假药问题。他们正在构建AI来诊断作物病害。他们正在构建AI以放大人类的可能性，因为在非洲，约束条件历来驱动着创新。这就是为什么"随用随付"模式。源自非洲。这就是为什么移动货币源自非洲，因为我们没有银行账户需要保护。这也是为什么基于非洲现实训练的AI模型更稳健、更高效、更具包容性。

So I'm going to go back to my initial question. That I've been asked by so many, including some that I've met during this conference. When will Africa catch up? To the AI revolution. I'm sure you agree with me. That whilst we sit here in this conference talking about AI ethics in Africa, we are deploying AI to save the money and not the few. We are optimizing AI for impact. And not for social media clicks.

所以我要回到我最开始的问题。那个我被许多人问过的问题，包括在这次会议上遇到的一些人。非洲何时才能赶上？AI革命。我相信你们会同意我的看法。当我们坐在这里讨论非洲的AI伦理时，我们正在部署AI以拯救大众，而非少数人。我们正在为影响力优化AI。而不是为了社交媒体的点击量。

Thirty years ago, the experts on Africa said it would take fifty years. For Africa. To have the kind of mobile telephony that we have. And they estimated that it would require50 billion dollars to do it. Well, I have news for you. 70% of the mobile money transactions that are going to happen in the world today are going to happen on African soil. And guess what? Africa is ready to do it again.

三十年前，研究非洲的专家说需要五十年。非洲。才能拥有我们现在这种移动通信。他们估计这将需要500亿美元。好吧，我有个消息要告诉你们。今天全球将发生的移动货币交易中，70%将发生在非洲的土地上。猜猜怎么着？非洲已经准备好再来一次。

We want to make AI inclusive, accessible, relevant and affordable. Because the future of AI is not just going to be written in silicon valley. The future of AI is going to be written in the silicon savannah in Kenya. Is going to be written on the streets of lagos is going to be written in thousands of villages that some of us have never heard of.

我们想要让AI具有包容性、可及性、相关性和可负担性。因为AI的未来不仅将由硅谷书写。AI的未来将由肯尼亚的"硅稀树草原"书写。将由拉各斯的街道书写，将由成千上万个我们有些人从未听说过的村庄书写。

There are millions of mis out there that are writing the future of AI, solving problems that we didn't even know existed, building a future where AI amplifies human potential instead of replacing it. In London, they are worrying about whether teachers are going to lose their jobs because of AI. In Africa, we are embracing AI to solve the shortage of teachers. In new York, they're building air algorithms in order to trade stocks faster. For us, it's about AI that can increase crop yields and reduce mortality amongst five year olds. That's the future of AI.

那里有数百万个"MRI"正在书写AI的未来，解决我们甚至不知道存在的问题，构建一个AI放大人类潜能而非替代它的未来。在伦敦，他们担心教师是否会因为AI而失业。在非洲，我们正拥抱AI以解决教师短缺问题。在纽约，他们构建AI算法是为了更快地交易股票。对我们而言，重要的是能提高作物产量、降低五岁以下儿童死亡率的AI。那才是AI的未来。

So this is not just Africa s AI moments. This is AI Africa moment. Are you coming?

所以，这不仅仅是非洲的AI时刻。这是AI的非洲时刻。你要加入吗？

That was Hardy peawa speaking at ted I in Vienna, Austria in2025.

以上是哈迪·佩米瓦于2025年在奥地利维也纳TED大会上的演讲。