The Nigerian government has disclosed plans to partner the United Arab Emirates on the development of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology for utilization in Africa’s most populous nation.
The announcement was made in Abuja by the Minister of Science and Technology, Dr Ogbonnaya Onu this week while welcoming the UAE Ambassador to Nigeria, Obaid Mohamed to his office. The minister said, contributions from UAE will fast track development of AI in the country.
Artificial Intelligence is a fast developing sphere of science all over the world. Artificial intelligence (AI), sometimes called machine intelligence, is intelligence demonstrated by machines, in contrast to the natural intelligence displayed by humans and other animals.
In computer science AI research is defined as the study of “intelligent agents”: any device that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its chance of successfully achieving its goals.
According to Onu, “developing AI in the country would make Nigeria to take its rightful place among the comity of nations.”
Mohammed revealed earlier that the UAE had started producing AI for a long time, adding that the country would be happy to collaborate with the Federal Government in establishing production of AI in Nigeria.
Mohamed also voiced UAE’S expressed the willingness of the UAE to collaborate with Nigeria as the oil rich country had long established a strong focus on AI and other fields in the computing industry.
