The 5th Kano Social Influencers’ Summit began September 18 once again attracting experts, people with disabilities, youths and various other participants.The crowd of men and women at this year’s Summit was equally noticeable serving as a testament to the awareness about the annual event.
This year’s theme is, “Artificial Intelligence in Election and Governance: Between the Potentials for Enhancement of Processes and the Perils of Digital Surveillance and Misrepresentation.” The event was declared open by Kano State Governor, Abba Yusuf, who was represented by Malam Usman Bala Mohammed mni, a Special Adviser.
It was Professor Jibrin Ibrahim, senior fellow of the Centre for Democracy and Development, CDD, Abuja who listed the reasons why KanSIS has become the cynosure of all eyes. Accordining to him, KanSIS is now a deep learning process and he urged participants to ensure they leave more educated.For this year’s Summit, he noted participants will be able to as usual catch up with the news, which is about how technology is shaping people’s lives and the threats therefrom.
He also noted that people attend KanSIS because “We are committed to our freedom”.Prof Ibrahim also said that KanSIS helps to catch up with what is happening at the world stage.
While welcoming the guests earlier, Y.Z YZ.Ya’u, Executive Director of Centre for Information Technology and Development, CITAD reminded participants that KanSIS is a Summit for sharing ideas, experiences, to learn from one another, to showcase creativity as well as innovation.Those with crazy ideas also feature prominently.He asked a critical question about the theme of this year’s event which centres on Artificial Intellingence.According to YZ: “If machines are intelligent, what exactly is intelligence?”
Dignitaries at the opening ceremony included Amina Salihu who represented Dr Kole Shettima, Africa Director, MacArthur Foundation.Also, there were Prof Amina Kaidal, chairman, Board of CITAD and a representative of the chair board of trustees of CITAD as well as Fatima Madaki of Search for Common Ground, Olumide Olaniyan, Adama Adamu, Tsema Ede and Andrea Kwen among others.
A plenary on the role of religious leaders in ensuring ethical deployment of AI was chaired by Mal Ibrahim Tizhe.The speakers included Rev Bitrus Dangiwa and Professir Abdullahi Danladi.
Another plenary was chaired by Dr. Amina Salihu while Chiamaka Okafor, ED of MILID Foundation Abuja was one of the speakers
More parallels sessions for PWDs
The Summit, as usual, later broke into parallel sessions on the first day. YZ Yau announced that four parallel sessions were dedicated towards people with disabilities, PWDs.
There was also a parallel session on AI and the media among others.
