PORT HARCOURT, NIGERIA - With recent developments such as Open AI’s ChatGPT and other popular artificial intelligence (AI) tools like Lensa AI Stable Diffusion and DALL-E that have recently made headlines, Nigerians are now more interested in AI than ever before.
AI - once just a buzzword confined to technology professionals and enthusiasts - is now a known concept for anyone who has a smartphone and internet access, thanks to the growing accessibility of digital tools. Nigerians currently hold a wide range of opinions on AI, ranging from skepticism, awe, and fear to overestimating its capabilities. Google recently released a search trend showing that Nigerians are increasingly interested in AI, which already has many well-known beneficial applications in society, and this article will look at how Nigerians take advantage of these new opportunities.

Current state of Nigeria’s AI

AI in healthcare

Nigeria’s National Institute for Pharmaceutical Research and Development (NIPRD) has urged the country’s health sector to adopt AI to enhance the delivery of healthcare. This led to the launch of NIPRD’s AI laboratory, which is designed to support the development of interventions to improve healthcare practices and workflows. Health technology startups in the private sector, such as Ubenwa, also offer AI-powered software for the early identification of neurological and respiratory conditions in infants through cry analysis technology. Another startup, HelpMum, uses AI for vaccine intervention to tackle maternal and infant mortality. Startups like these are already making significant strides in the healthcare sector with their AI products.

Language preservation

AI is also making a difference in lan