Luol Ajou: South Sudan Needs to Understand How to Govern Artificial Intelligence
At the 2nd Global Digital Forum in Moscow, participants are discussing the practical side of digital sovereignty and how it affects everyday life.
Participants from different countries are exploring accessible services, user-friendly infrastructure and ways to ensure equal access to technology. Luol Ajou, Managing Director of a media agency in South Sudan, spoke to IT Russia about the challenges of digital development and regulating the use of artificial intelligence.
– First of all, I’d like to thank Russia for its hospitality and warm welcome. We’ve been well accommodated, and tours have been organized for us. This is an excellent forum. It’s my second time attending, while many of my colleagues are here for the first time. We attended two sessions that were particularly interesting and important for our country.
The first focused on public administration and AI regulation. For a young country like South Sudan, it’s important to understand how to govern these technologies. We’re currently working to adapt an electronic governance system that allows us to monitor the activities of government agencies, including revenue collection and tax administration.
The second session focused on social media and news media in the age of artificial intelligence. As the managing director of a media agency, I’m particularly concerned with public trust in the media. South Sudan faces serious governance challenges, and the media sector is part of that picture.
Our media platforms don’t always fulfill their primary purpose of informing the public. Alongside useful information, they also spread misinformation and defamatory content. Another challenge is that the leading platforms are run by global players, while a young country like ours does not yet have comparable homegrown technology. Other African countries face similar difficulties.
That’s why the session on trust in the media was particularly useful to us. Some countries have organizations responsible for overseeing the information being disseminated, but this system doesn’t work everywhere. We need to exchange experience with Russia and other countries. These issues are extremely important for South Sudan, and we’re paying close attention to how Russia is developing in this area.
