ChatGPT Founder's Visit: Benefits Of AI To Nigeria

Typically, when industry captains embark on state visits, one thing stands out: exploring of mutual interests.

OpenAI Chief Executive Officer, Sam Altman, is presently in Nigeria interacting with some members of the tech community, apparently to spread interest in emerging artificial intelligence (AI).

Altman was seen speaking with various stakeholders in the tech community in Lagos in photos circulating on social media on Friday. 

He also addressed students at the MUSON Center about the future of artificial intelligence. 

Between May and June, Altman plans to visit 17 locations around the world, including Toronto, New Delhi, Tel Aviv, Madrid, Brussels and Singapore, with Lagos as the only African city on his itinerary. 

Altman reportedly encouraged potential clients to fill out a form asking for basic information such as the person’s name, email address and reason for wanting to meet. 

The AI ​​pioneer is at the forefront of what some are already calling the coming AI revolution.

He also invites those who can organise meetings of 500 people or more to specify this. 

Nigeria is home to Africa’s most active tech hub, and developers are already churning out amazing AI-generated products.

These include Justin Irabor’s Kainene Vos Savant and Richmond Alake’s audio-to-text AI automation tool, as well as research partners on Telegram.

OpenAI opened ChatGPT to the public in November 2022, demonstrating its excellent ability to quickly acquire and adapt new knowledge.

There is a lot of excitement about this advanced language model because it’s designed to generate answers in a conversational way.

In addition to meeting with OpenAI users and developers, Altman announced plans to interact with lawmakers to gather feedback and ideas about AI.

Just two days ago, OpenAI’s CEO spoke to the U.S. Senate, saying he supports government control of artificial intelligence.

Conclusion

Visits like this are an indication of the fact that  the visiting parties, having conducted due diligence investigations, have concluded on the positive potentials for local business.

From the software engineering perspective, this is not surprising given the knack by Nigerians for exploits in fintech starups, application development, IoT, electronic healthcare, cloud healthcare solutions, etc.

Relevant authorities are therefore urged to look into ways to make AI opportunities appealing to both parties under mutual contexts.

This is to ensure that Nigeria is not left behind in the enhancements to digital economy based on artificial intelligence.