Mauritius' recent initiatives in the context of AI make it the country best prepared for its adoption in Africa, and 61st in the world, according to the Government AI Readiness Index 2023. Efforts remain to be made according to an expert.
Mauritius ranks 61st country in the world out of 193, and first in Africa, in terms of readiness to adopt artificial intelligence (AI). This is according to the Government AI Readiness Index 2023 report from Oxford Insights. While Mauritius is the leading country on the continent, the report indicates that Sub-Saharan Africa lags behind in AI adoption, with the lowest score among all regions in the world.
Mauritius stands out in the region with a score of 53.27, followed by South Africa, Rwanda, Senegal and Benin. The authors of the report indicate that Mauritius' strength lies mainly in the government pillar, where its score is 69.82. In contrast, South Africa leads the region in the data and infrastructure pillars, as well as the technology sector. Furthermore, South Africa is the only country in sub-Saharan Africa to exceed the global average for the technology sector pillar.
The creation of the Mauritius Emerging Technologies Council (METC) is one of the government measures that has advocated in favor of Mauritius. “This demonstrates that as a small country, we are moving towards digitalization. We are seen as a digital hub in the region by our peers. We established the METC to oversee all emerging technologies, including AI. We also organized a major international conference on AI. All these initiatives have enabled Mauritius to become first in Africa in this index. Now we must continue to implement these emerging technologies, and not just AI, to improve the quality of life of our citizens,” Deepak Balgobin, Minister of Technology, Information and Communication, said in a statement. at the Défi Plus.
According to Dr. Heman Mohabeer, AI expert, there is still a long way to go. “There is definitely a desire on the part of Mauritian companies to promote AI. But there are adjustments to be made, particularly in terms of regulations. It is true that compared to the rest of Africa, we are ahead. There are initiatives in the private sector in Mauritius, such as internal training. There was also the AI conference recently. But laws must regulate risks, such as that of having biased AI. We must ensure that we have a framework law. We need to do consultations, but we are on the right track,” he points out in a statement to Défi Plus.
It is worth noting that the United States takes first place in the global ranking, followed by Singapore and the United Kingdom. The Democratic Republic of Korea is last in this ranking which includes 193 countries. With a 191st place, South Sudan closes the ranking for Africa.
