The Politics of Emergence: African Middle Powers and Strategic Cooperation on AI
The African Union (AU), in its first and only continent-wide AI strategy, turns to a familiar source of authority: an estimate of generative AI’s impact on global GDP by McKinsey. Somewhat arbitrarily, the AU extracts a neat 5 percent share for Africa and concludes that generative AI could add between $110 to $220 billion to African GDP a year. A striking figure, certainly. A very elastic one too. To dwell on the elasticity of these projections is, perhaps, to miss the point. Whether the figure is $110 to $220 billion is secondary to the conditions under which Africa’s AI gains might be realised.