Yilma, K. orcid.org/0000-0003-2514-0491 (2025) Ethics of AI in Africa: Interrogating the Role of Ubuntu and AI Governance Initiatives. Ethics and Information Technology, 27. 24. ISSN 1388-1957
Abstract
One of the common concerns raised in AI ethics scholarship is the overly western-centric nature of ongoing AI ethics discourse and governance initiatives. This has recently prompted many commentators to proclaim the emergence of an epistemic injustice or “ethical colonialism”. Many scholars point to the role of indigenous ethical systems, particularly Ubuntu, in addressing this flaw. In the meantime, a series of national and continental AI governance initiatives are also emerging in Africa. But the extent to which Ubuntu and emergent AI governance initiatives contribute towards addressing the problem of epistemic injustice is yet to be interrogated. In a novel approach, I examine in this article the extent to which Ubuntu and AI governance initiatives in Africa articulate an African perspective of AI ethics, and hence address the epistemic injustice. I argue that neither the normative structure of Ubuntu nor recent AI governance initiatives offer a clear, coherent and practicable framework of “African AI ethics”. I further show that the much-touted “African” ethics of Ubuntu is rarely referenced or implied in recent national or continental AI governance initiatives. I close the article with a call for defining African AI ethics by relevant actors in the continent.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © The Author(s) 2025. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
Keywords: | AI ethics African ethics AI policies; Epistemic injustice; Ethical colonialism; AI governance; Digital colonialism; Africa |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Education, Social Sciences and Law (Leeds) > School of Law (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 24 Jun 2025 12:43 |
Last Modified: | 24 Jun 2025 12:43 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Springer Nature |
Identification Number: | 10.1007/s10676-025-09834-5 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:228280 |