South Africa now has an artificial intelligence institute dedicated to the defence and military sector, as part of the hubs of the AI Institute of South Africa .
“As a democratic state, we wholly support the belief that AI is key to groundbreaking socio-economic development for the country. Most recently, Facebook owner Meta kicked off its AI push through its chatbot embedded across its social media platforms – Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger and Threads.The hubs are expected to serve as a common base for knowledge generation, research and development, as well as implementing the capabilities of AI applications for health, agriculture, finance, mining, manufacturing and government.
Gungubele revealed the purpose is to ensure sectors such as water and waste management, the just energy transition, built environment, health, telecoms, media and languages also have AI hubs.The minister said emerging technologies, including AI, are now the focal points of geopolitical competition, with nations like China, Russia and the US aggressively exploring the military applications of AI.
“The national defence policy review underscores government’s focus on technology, with a significant budget allocation for defence technologies aligned to AI development and research.