At regular intervals, a Nigerian social media content maker, Lizzie Bookman, popularly known as Jarvis, dons assorted costumes and holds live sessions on TikTok to the admiration of hundreds of her fans.
Using a well-installed Artificial Intelligence language, the TikTok star, a student of Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, Edo State, plays the character of a robot in her live broadcasts.
This character has helped her gain hundreds of views and followers around the world. Many of them shower her with TikTok coins during each broadcast, which turn into real money. Her most successful live broadcast reportedly earned her about $4,000.
For several decades, the intelligent use of machines and software as opposed to the intelligence of humans and animals – Artificial Intelligence – has proven to become an important technology with a multi-sectoral reach.
Some of the high-profile AI applications used include advanced web search engines, recommendation systems (used by YouTube, Amazon, and Netflix), understanding human speech (such as Google Assistant, and Alexa), self-driving cars (e.g. Waymo), generative AI, and creative tools.
The recent buzz has been around generative AI – a type of artificial intelligence technology that can produce various types of content, including text, imagery, audio, and synthetic. Among the admirable features of generative AI is the simplicity of new user interfaces for creating high-quality text, graphics and videos in a matter of seconds.
An AI information site, Tech Target, states, “Generative AI was introduced in the 1960s in chatbots. But it was not until 2014, with the introduction of generative adversarial networks, or GANs – a type of machine learning algorithm – that generative AI could create convincingly authentic images, videos, and audio of real people.
“Generative AI has uses across a wide range of industries, including art, writing, script writing, software development, product design, healthcare, finance, gaming, marketing, and fashion. Investment in generative AI surged during the early 2020s, with large companies such as Microsoft, Google, and Baidu as well as numerous smaller firms developing generative AI models.”
Some of the goals of AI technology include reasoning, problem-solving, knowledge representation, planning, decision-making, social intelligence, machine learning, and language processing.
Aside from social media content creators, educationists, architects, healthcare providers, entrepreneurs, artists, engineers, farmers, manufacturers, and security operatives also utilise AI tools.
Speaking with the Sunday PUNCH on how Generative AI has revolutionalised architecture visualisation, the Principal Partner of OddSpace Consult, Mr Ayomide George, explained how AI had equipped architects with the right tools to produce better content.
George stated, “The architecture, engineering and construction industry has not been left out in this new AI revolution. From design to construction, there are several AI software that streamlines the design and construction process. One of the most common AI software used for architectural visualisation is midjourney.
“Midjourney is a text-to-image AI generator that helps us as architects to quickly produce concepts for stakeholders on a design project. Before the advent of AI, we would take days or even weeks before coming up with 3D visualisations that these AI software now produce in mere minutes.
“In the light of this, architects now have to learn things like prompt engineering and be more adept at using these technologies to be able to keep up.
“There are other AI solutions in the AEC industry like slate.ai, which uses AI to improve the decision value chain in building production and many others. The adoption of this innovation in the AEC industry is still going at a slow pace, but once we can harness its full potential, the results will be astronomical.”
Underutilised in Nigeria
A global data platform, Statista, indicates that the generative AI market is anticipated to attain a market size of $162.40m in 2023, showcasing an annual growth rate of 26.39 per cent. This, according to the online platform, is targeted to culminate in a market volume of $836.70m by 2030.
In April 2023, a multinational professional services network, KPMG International Limited, in a report titled, ‘Generative AI models – The Risks and Potential Rewards in Business’, highlighted the potential benefits of AI models, which includes speed and efficiency.
The report stated, “We believe that generative AI models have the potential to transform businesses through automating and executing certain tasks with unprecedented speed and efficiency. This is particularly true when human expertise and ingenuity is paired with deep understanding of how to use these programmes and effectively harness their capabilities.
“However, it will take time and human expertise to unlock their full potential in a way that’s responsible, trustworthy and safe. If you’re considering using generative AI applications, it’s important to establish a set of internal processes and controls for everyone in your organisation to follow.”
However, a tech research platform, ElectronicsHub, in a December 2023 report titled, ‘Mapped: Interest in Generative AI by Country’, indicates that Nigeria has lower search interest in generative AI compared to its counterparts such as Mauritius, South Africa, Namibia, and other countries.
Based on its global monthly search volumes, the report showed that in Nigeria out of 100,000 persons surveyed, only 77 persons showed interest in generative AI. Compared to other African countries, Mauritius takes the lead with 1,156 searches, followed by South Africa with 438, Namibia with 320, Botswana with 310, and Kenya with 221.
The report further indicated that the highest search volume for generative AI tools was in the Philippines, followed by Singapore and Canada.
Data from the Nigerian Communication Commission also indicated that in spite of Nigeria’s populous mobile penetration rate of 220 million users, most people living in the country show little or no interest in Gen AI tools.
Conversely, an American technological firm, Gartner, estimated that by 2025, 70 per cent of enterprises would identify the sustainable and ethical use of AI among their top concerns.
“By 2025, 35 per cent of large organisations will have a chief AI officer who reports to the CEO or COO. By 2025, 30 per cent of outbound marketing messages from large organisations will be synthetically generated. That’s up from less than two per cent in 2022. Through 2026, despite all the advancements in AI, the impact on global jobs will be neutral – there will not be a net decrease or increase,” the website says.
Negative concerns about AI
Despite the opportunities available for content makers, who wish to adopt the use of AI, some experts have expressed concerns about the issue of credibility and the perception of reality caused by emerging technology.
Stakeholders have pointed out that an abuse of AI could lead to an increasing wave of digitally forged images or videos (deepfakes) and harmful cybersecurity attacks on businesses, including nefarious requests that realistically mimic an employee’s boss.
Billionaire businessman and philanthropist Bill Gates, in a post on his blog, GatesNotes, in March also expressed concern that AI could take over the world.
“Governments and philanthropy will need to play a major role in ensuring that it reduces inequity and doesn’t contribute to it. This is the priority for my own work related to AI,” he wrote.
Gates added that AI would likely be “so disruptive that it is bound to make people uneasy,” because it “raises hard questions about the workforce, the legal system, privacy, bias, and more.”
However, he explained that the positive potential of AI would improve the efficiency of workers and contribute to medical innovation.
Gates added, “The evidence shows that having basic math skills sets students up for success, no matter what career they choose. But achievement in math is going down across the country, especially for Black, Latino, and low-income students. AI can help turn that trend around. AI will enhance your work by helping with writing emails and managing your inbox.
“AIs will even give patients the ability to do basic triage, get advice about how to deal with health problems, and decide whether they need to seek treatment.”
A 2023 report published by the Harvard Kennedy School noted, “Due to the ease of access and use, generative AIs can create mis-/disinformation at scale at little to no cost to individuals and organised actors.
“Increased quantity of misinformation allows ill-intentioned actors to ‘flood the zone’ with incorrect or misleading information, thus drowning out factual content and/or sowing confusion.
“Due to their technical capabilities and ease of use, generative AIs can be used to create higher-quality misinformation. Generative AIs can generate useful content (e.g., chatbots generating code). However, they can also generate plausible-looking information that is entirely inaccurate. Without intending to, users could thus generate misinformation, which could potentially spread.”
On her part, a Lagos-based homeschool educator and online tutor, Glory Ivharue, in an interview with our correspondent, explained that AI would not necessarily alter reality in a negative way unless it was misused by social media content creators.
She explained, “The social media and technology in whatever capacity is created to make life easier. The way our lives were 20 or 30 years ago cannot be compared with what we have now with the rise of technology. Now that we have AI, I tell people that it’s here for the best if we only know how to utilise it properly, though I think Africans tend to misuse the purpose of tech and get overtly distracted or stuck on it.
“Recently, I began to use ChatGPT and I liked it. It’s like an enhanced dictionary or calculator and I might use it for professionally-inclined write-up, but that doesn’t mean that I must base my research or rely solely on it. This is just a phase; we don’t know what level of technology will come up next.
“There are people who use AI to make their lives better by making money. It is not here to alter reality but to enhance and make life better. For instance, in the use of improved AI to create photographs, you don’t need to go to a photo studio and rely on good props to get quality photos. With your phone, you can create all these things using AI and it keeps evolving. However, we must guard against its abuse.”
Explaining the pros and cons of AI advancements, an AI expert and tech advisor, Dr Joseph Oche, in an interview with Sunday PUNCH, stated, “AI advancements indeed present income-generating opportunities for content creators across various fields.
“In education, it enables personalised learning experiences, while in architecture and graphic design, AI streamlines tasks, enhancing efficiency.
“Generative AI is reshaping social media content by automating the creation of diverse and engaging materials. From text generation to image synthesis, it empowers users and platforms to produce content efficiently, fostering creativity and streamlining content creation processes.
“Content automation can increase productivity for creators, potentially translating to income through more content output and engagement. However, ethical considerations regarding misinformation and deepfakes underscore the need for responsible deployment and oversight in this evolving landscape.
“Pros in Nigeria’s social media sphere include increased content diversity, improved efficiency, and potentially enhanced reach. However, there are cons to consider, such as the risk of spreading misinformation through AI-generated content and potential job displacement. Institutions can contribute by fostering AI education and awareness to help creators leverage these tools responsibly.
“Additionally, there’s a need for regulatory frameworks to address ethical concerns and mitigate the risks associated with AI-generated content, ensuring a balance between innovation and accountability.”
