To properly observe biases in AI technologies, I think it is important to have a good example of AI implementation to compare to others. After researching smart cities in Kenya, I believe they are an excellent choice for this. In a 2019 smartpress article, they stated that "according to CNN, Africa is expected to lead the smart city initiatives and stand as the fastest urbanising continent in the world by 2020." Usually, when technology is designed and implemented quickly, there are a lot of flaws however, during my research it was very hard to find any negative aspects about Kenya's smart cities and their AI implementation. A large part of this I contribute to Kenya's dedication to ethics and fairness. This is exhibited by their commission of the "Blockchain and AI task force" prior to their entrance into the technology age. "The group is led by Dr Bitange Ndemo, Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship at the University of Nairobi’s Business School, and consists of 11 total members from academia and industry. The first goal of the group is to provide the government with recommendations about how to harness these emerging technologies over the next five years."( Future of life, 2019) . This group as been essential in the proper development of smart cities.
An example of this taskforces push to ensure proper "balance between citizen protection and private sector innovation" can be seen in the 2019 report to Kenya's ICT secretary Joe Mucheru. In this report, the task force recommended the following to dispel corruption: "
Help draft a digital asset framework that will enable Kenyan citizens to raise funds through initial coin offerings (ICOs).
Create a digital locker (complementing a digital ID) for every citizen to securely store official documents like credit reports and birth certificates.
Use blockchain to track agricultural produce from end-to-end (from seeds to marketplace) and to use AI and analytics to detect fraud, trace unsafe products
Distribute farming subsidies through a blockchain controlled agri-token
Introduce blockchain technology to enable customers to trace the supply chain of medication
Develop a health token incentive to reward citizens who maintain a healthy lifestyle.
Use blockchain supply-chain networks to flag and report counterfeit goods. " (Mpala, 2019)
To observe their AI technologies more specifically I researched the two cities, Nairobi and Cape Town, which are leading the "smart city" charge.