Towards African Artificial Intelligence Ethical Principles

Many of the activities we carry out have the presence of artificial intelligence in them: internet search, crafting this abstract, having my alarm wake me up daily, using Siri on my phone, chatting with a BoT, etc. There is hardly any aspect of our lives and industry, such as education, healthcare, and gender, that is devoid of the presence of AI technology. Given AI's ubiquitous nature, there is no doubt the need for urgent regulation. Despite its influence leaving no section of the populace untouched, the principles and discussions around its regulation have been primarily skewed rather than all-encompassing. Consequently, this paper discusses cognate ideals of common good: Solidarity, Subsidiarity, Human dignity, and Natural law as alternative but complimentary principles representing values endemic to the African continent. The paper argues that a sound AI ethical principle ought to be genuinely globally inclusive of voices, ideas, perspectives, and values from both the Minority and the Majority worlds.