Malicious Use of Artificial Intelligence in Sub-Saharan Africa: Challenges for Pan-African Cybersecurity

Abstract

For almost two decades, Sub-Saharan African countries have been making significant efforts to ensure the rapid development of industries related to information and communication technology (ICTs) in the region. At present, all leading nations are placing greater emphasis on the development of hybrid intelligent systems capable of solving extremely complicated tasks. This includes Sub-Saharan African countries, which consider the development of advanced technologies to be an effective instrument for ensuring sustainable social and economic growth and solving a great number of the continent’s problems. It has become evident, however, that all technological novelties that should simplify our lives can be used for malicious purposes. The present study examines existing practices and risks of malicious use of artificial intelligence (MUAI) in Sub-Saharan African countries. At the end of the study, the author comes to the conclusion that the problem of ensuring information, psychological, and cybersecurity is common to all African countries, which creates a serious obstacle for their further sustainable social and economic development. Over the past decade, Sub-Saharan Africa has made significant efforts to elaborate a joint vision for counteracting cybercrimes and the malicious use of advanced technologies. But all the attempts to establish effective supranational instruments that would regulate the fight against cyberattacks at the Pan-African level and take into account the interests of the vast majority of African countries in this area have failed. This demonstrates the presence of serious contradictions among African countries, which, taken together, prevent the establishment of mutually beneficial cooperation even in such an important field as cybersecurity. However, until such cooperation is established, it seems unlikely that African countries will even come close to solving this problem, which means that their information space will continue to be subjected to large-scale cyber-attacks that pose a serious threat not only to the security of individuals, but also to national and Pan-African security.