This webinar explores the philosophical intervention in machine learning and AI praxis using the concept Cosmo-uBuntu and presents the work of Masakhane as one such African solution-oriented intervention. Cosmo-uBuntu is a humane, theoretical, and solutionary approach to technological innovation and policies that address issues of global justice. The Masakhane project brings together diverse African NLP researchers who constitute an open-source, continent-wide, online research effort in machine translation for Africa’s languages.
Our panelists will highlight the cultural and individual differences in direct interaction with different technology interfaces based on the cultural reading practices of non-Western and African peoples, with discussions on how these works can reverse the trend toward exclusively Anglophone digital futures in Africana worlds while conducting proactive restoration of African epistemologies.
