Call for Submissions

Background

African communities (educators, traders, business, healthcare workers, travelers, social media users, farmers as well as ethnic or language groups among others) continue to participate in the development of AI solutions actively or passively, knowingly or unknowingly through the submission of their data on multiple research projects as well as during application use. However, some of these communities and the individuals that constitute them, are generally not aware of pertinent underlying issues related to the AI that they help to develop and use. These issues include but are not limited to bias, privacy, data harvesting, fairness, Intellectual Property (IP) and informed consent. The outcome of this thereof are biased and unfair AI solutions, data exploitation, IP exploitation and loss of privacy among other adverse outcomes. This situation is a pointer on the lack of an in-depth and competent awareness of these issues in the first place and subsequently the lack of the means and structures necessary to address them at a community and individual level.

Objectives

The objective of the workshop is to bring together stakeholders in order to discuss the Meaningful, Beneficial and Informed Participation of African Communities in the Development and Utilization of AI Solutions.

Call for Submissions

The organizers wish to call for submissions documenting case studies and empirical works aligned to one of the following tracks for presentation at the workshop.

1. Development of Solutions – Works that document how AI has been used to address community specific needs, the integration of local / indigenous knowledge in the development of AI, and consideration of contextually ethical and Intellectual Property issues in the development of AI in Africa.

2. Participation and Inclusion – Works that document how AI has been used as a means to achieve gender equity, youth engagement, and inclusion of marginalized groups in Africa. How these and other groups have been involved during the development of AI solutions in Africa.

3. Sustainability and impact – Works that document novel AI capacity building approaches and initiatives for African communities, data ownership, protection and governance issues in Africa, and assessments of short, medium and long term impact of AI in Africa.
   
   

The submission will be a two stage process;

1. Stage 1 – Register your Abstract / Concept – Interested participants are invited to submit a 300 word abstract (for concluded works) or concept (for proposed or works in progress) for preliminary review. The submission should clearly outline the community in focus, the issue/s faced by the community, the observed or proposed role of AI in addressing the solution, and the outcomes or anticipated outcomes of AI in addressing the issue.
   
   

Important Note: This preliminary assessment will be instrumental in preparing and processing letters of support for VISA applications for the conference.

Deadline: The abstracts will be reviewed on a rolling basis until 30th September 2024.

2. Stage 2 - Full Paper Submission – Interested participants are invited to submit a short paper (5 pages maximum) detailing the community in focus, the issues facing the community, the objectives of the study, background literature, methodology, results, discussion, recommendations and conclusions for review in readiness for the workshop. Important Note: Access your submission and add the full paper pdf – do not create a new submission

Deadline: 30th November 2024

          Submission Link: https://openreview.net/group?id=AAAI.org/2025/Workshop/AIA

Output

The envisaged output of the workshop are proceedings and an edited book.

Mode of Participation

The workshop will be an in person event at the AAAI 25.

Travel and Accommodation Support 

Limited support may be available to support some participants to attend the conference. The information will be shared with participants who will have at least made a stage 1 submission as and when it is confirmed. Interested participants who will have made a stage 2 submission will be given preference.

Workshop Chair

Dr Moses M Thiga - Snr Lecturer in Information Technology, mthiga@kabarak.ac.ke

Conference Website - https://aaai.org/aaai-conference/