Adekemi Omotubora

1. Are you able to describe or frame the work you are currently doing on AI in Africa, or law and tech more generally, and what do you think is needed to promote more inclusivity in the space?

AI is an emerging area and I've had the opportunity to work on the legal issues in different use cases like transport, agriculture, health and finance. Currently, I'm working on AI in education. One of the themes of the project is how AI helps to promote more inclusiveness in the education sector particularly for girls. My main focus is how we can use regulation to optimise the advantages that artificial intelligence offers. And of course, considering the kind of space that we are operating in in Africa and our limitations in terms of how we engage with the global debate, and how receptive we are of the technology or the social constraints that affect the development, use and acceptance in Africa, I try to integrate these concerns into my work. I try to understand what are the challenges of regulating AI across different use cases. With my legal background, I tend to engage more with the issues using the lens of regulation. For example, how can we use regulation to enhance use or acceptance of technology? Even when I work on projects in a different context, for example, I worked on a European agribot project, I still aim to understand the differences and similarities between the European and African contexts. If we consider  labour shortages in certain sectors like agriculture in Europe, then, it makes sense to deploy AI. But if we also look at indigenous communities in Africa, there are many poor communities and if we bring the same technology to a predominantly farming community, that can be problematic. I have to apply that perspective of difference to understanding the problems and solutions and challenges that AI might present. For example, how regulation might reinforce the values that we hold dear, how it helps us build more inclusive technologies, promote overall development, and improve the quality of people’s lives? It's interesting to work in these different areas because research in AI is still nascent, and still very narrow in terms of the people working in the space.

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2. What do you imagine the future of your field looks like with the introduction of AI? And what trends do you see and how do you envisage this affecting the work you currently do?

When it comes to law specifically, there's a lot of promise there. Unfortunately, I've not been doing a lot of work in the legal tech space itself to fully understand how the technology is likely to change the practice of law, but it's definitely an interesting area because lawyers now talk about AI will take over jobs, which is a narrative that cuts across AI application in other sectors. Apart from the impact of AI on the legal profession itself, I see a great deal of interest in the legal, philosophical and ethical questions around AI going forward. There are emerging questions around AI colonialism and what this means for the global south, the extent to which we should allow the technology to develop or be deployed if they threaten jobs, agency, dignity, privacy etc.? What kind of liability should we ascribe to AI. I think that these are important questions, and we need to ask and answer them.  I’ll like to mention that a critical consideration for lawyers like me is also the role of regulation in all of these. We have to figure out how we frame the regulatory responses. Of course, I’ll want to see a regulation that is equally inclusive, and collaborations will be the key here if we are going to be able to answer questions around striking the right balances between promoting innovation and protecting people’s rights or solutions that will be acceptable to larger groups of stakeholders or certain sections of the community.

I mentioned that we need more collaborations. I think that there needs to be more interdisciplinary collaborations. I have worked and currently work in interdisciplinary research groups. From interactions with colleagues in other disciplines, I could see how we can present a more diverse and comprehensive view of the problems and solutions for AI development. For instance, I now understand how economists can help us to explain the motivations for innovation and incentives that aid acceptance of new technologies in a given social context, and how we can  integrate these into regulatory approaches. So I see that the trend is that we have more collaborative research. This has a great potential for enhancing the appropriateness and effectiveness of regulation.

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3. What are the challenges you have experienced in establishing yourself as an expert in the field of law and technology?

I think that the first thing is, despite one's gender, this is a new area. We've been talking about technology forever, but new technologies keep evolving. Now there's a lot of focus on AI, but new technologies will evolve. Usually the literature will be sparse at the beginning, so we'll always struggle to catch up on the knowledge and expertise, then we’ll have new challenges resolving issues around regulation, liability, rights etc in the legal field for instance. I do face challenges with my background as a Nigerian, as an African, as a woman, and my background in law. For example, law is not as dynamic as other disciplines and sometimes it's difficult to change the law or develop new legislation, so it can take more time for the work of lega scholars and researchers to be seen, understood or recognised. I also have a non-technical background, which means I also have to understand the technology to understand how it intersects with the law and what legal issues are involved and the approach or framework that is applicable or appropriate. A major  challenge of course is developing proposals that are implementable and enforceable from both legal and technical perspectives.

In terms of gender and research, I would say that there are so many challenges that one faces as a woman. Perhaps one major challenge in  AI and technology generally is that there are not many women working in the area. So as part of my work now, I try to understand the gender dimensions of the technology.  For instance, we talk of bias in AI and non-representativeness of data. And when you look at Africa, where we already have the historical exclusion of women, that problem can be aggravated. It could mean for example that women also have fewer digital footprints. So, there needs to be a conscious effort to correct the historical imbalances and one way we can do this is to increase women's representation in research projects and on research teams. That way, we can have more diverse voices, and amplify gender related concerns in development of AI products and solutions. We can understand exclusion at the micro and macro levels, at community or national or societal levels, and we can even highlight the challenges around intersectional identities. So I think this is maybe an aspect that I see as challenging, we don't have enough women doing research in this area.

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4. You obtained your PhD in cybersecurity law - What are some of the key areas we as Africans and more specifically, marginalised groups face through the increased digitization of increasing more aspects of our lives?

I think that we have walked this terrain many times. One of the main problems we have is that people express concerns about certain issues, like privacy, but their behaviour does not reflect those concerns. Perhaps, the excitement, convenience and freedom that comes with technology means people trust the system too much and give too much  away in terms of personal data. Also, there is usually a big knowledge gap between service providers and users and consumers. That's called information asymmetry, service providers are the ones who see the big picture, they understand all the benefits, and what could go wrong. Take online banking for instance, it is easy to overlook the risks in favour of the convenience. And usually, the benefits are marketed, you can get some warnings, but not the full range of the risks embedded in the system or solution. For marginalised or disadvantaged groups, like those who have no access or limited access to banking facilities before the technology, it provides access and convenience and promises inclusion on the one hand, but on the other hand, they can lose money, trust and confidence in the system, be left without remedies because of cost implications, time, effort involved or simply lack of awareness of the complaint mechanisms. Another problem is governments’ permissiveness. we don’t have enough regulatory frameworks such as those that define and allocate liability for cybersecurity breaches. Sometimes the ease and efficiency of digitalization tends to trump protection of consumer rights. You can find situations where the government itself doesn’t comply with the law or try to promote innovation, convenience and efficiency at the risk of citizen’s rights.

But policy approaches are changing and governments are beginning to realise that service providers need to take more responsibility. Many countries in Africa have developed data protection laws, regulations or frameworks putting the responsibility of safeguarding data on those that collect the data, and ensuring they put measures in place to protect the personal data of users. There are also cybercrime laws and national cybersecurity strategies. What is not clear is whether policy frameworks are considering marginalised or particularly at risk people or communities which they can target with cybersecurity awareness and education programmes.

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5. What has been your proudest moment of your career. And what advice can you give young women looking to pursue the same career path as you?

I usually think about when I finished my PhD as one of my proudest moments. It was very challenging because I was caught between two disciplines, law and technology. You don't talk about cybersecurity just in the abstract, for example, you have to understand technologies like encryption etc. So I always look back at that as the foundation of my ability to understand the technical aspects of the technology very quickly. I'm particularly proud of the projects that I’m now working on, and how they have the potential to change the way we think about law and technology and development and inclusion from an African perspective.  I’m also being recognised as an expert in the field of emerging technologies in Africa, that is a great honour indeed.

I have students that work with me already on different projects, to whom I also provide mentorship. I prefer to work with women of course, because we need more women in this space.  Fortunately, I also teach at the university so I interact with a lot of young people and encourage them to develop interest in different aspects of technology. At the university of Lagos, I helped establish the students’ forum for emerging technologies which is open to students from all faculties; law, engineering, science, business, social sciences etc. For women interested in emerging technologies, I’ll say there are lots of interesting things to do, that are questions that need answers and you can make an impact with your work. AI needs more women researchers, so, yeah, go for it!

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