Conversation about AI and the hardware layer with two industry experts. Taken from Andreesen Horowitz A16z podcast where Lisa Su CEO of AMD is interviewed by Bob Swan former CEO of Intel. High compute is the bedrock of generative AI. At the heart of this are high-performance Chips. Importance of Moore's Law. The balance between compute and form factor. The realities of R and D cycles in this industry. The need to stay away from traditional moates as means of staying ahead of your competition and instead focusing on integration within the ecosystem. 

Conversation with Roland Ganafa AI Studio Uganda is an applied AI innovation studio. The key word is applied. A few examples of what we build:

Ease Health - an offline AI clinical decision support tool for health workers, built on a fine-tuned medical language model. We serve as implementing partners of Crane AI Labs on this, running field research in Luweero District with co-investigators from Makerere University Hospital. It works without the internet, because that's the reality in most health facilities. 

AskCrane - a civic AI assistant that runs on WhatsApp and USSD, designed to connect citizens to services across seven government agencies through NITA-UG's infrastructure. USSD matters because the majority of Ugandans are on feature phones.

AI Studio Academy - our training arm, where we run training sessions with Adaption Labs, university tours, and weekly Build Nights with Africa's Talking.  

Enterprises and institutions don't need another generic AI vendor. They need a partner who knows that the last mile in Uganda runs on USSD and mobile money, not broadband and credit cards."Africa cannot afford to be a passive consumer of AI built elsewhere. We need to own the infrastructure, the data, the models, and the institutions that shape how this technology lands here." Look at the current pattern. African data, our languages, our images, our behaviour, gets collected, shipped abroad, used to train models we had no say in, and then those models get sold back to us as products. We provide the raw material and buy back the finished goods. That's an extractive economic structure, and we've seen this movie before with other resources.

So when I say we need to own those four things, I mean it practically:

Infrastructure - where does the computation physically happen? If every AI query from Uganda is processed on servers abroad, we have no leverage, no data protection guarantees, and we export value with every request.

Data - whoever holds the data decides what the models learn. If Ugandan data only exists inside foreign companies' training sets, our realities get represented on someone else's terms, or not at all.

Models - we need the capability to fine-tune, evaluate, and eventually build models ourselves, not just consume APIs.

Institutions - policy, standards, procurement rules, research bodies. Technology lands the way institutions allow it to land.

Models - almost nothing is trained here yet, but Ugandans have proven we can shape global models.

Institutions - this is actually a bright spot. The STI Secretariat under the Office of the President and Ministry of ICT and National Guidance are taking innovation seriously.

Infrastructure - our biggest constraint. Compute is scarce and expensive, connectivity is uneven, and power reliability still shapes what's possible.

Data - Uganda's languages and cultural knowledge are barely represented in any major model. The government is engaging earlier than most expected.

The ecosystem has more talent than capital, and more energy than structure.

On AI's role: I'd frame it as a leapfrog opportunity with a deadline. Uganda skipped landlines and went straight to mobile; skipped bank branches and went to mobile money. AI offers a similar jump.

Attended a forum for crypto and Virtual assets in Uganda. We have had the keynote from the vice chairperson @FitspaUG @DoreenLukandwa and #FinancialIntelligenceAuthority representative. The discussion about #regulation, #risk, #policy and #activity in the crypto and virtual asset spaces. FIA started by giving an example of someone in the US who started a donation campaign and then diverted the funds through crypto wallets eventually channeling the money into terrorist groups in Syria. He then went to describe the nature of relationships that FIA establishes with payment processors helping them understand risks, compliance and company structure as well as reporting and the flagging of critical wallets or accounts. Special thanks to the team @fitspaug #CapitalMarketsAuthority@mudatech_ CEO Suleiman Muranga had made a compelling case on what the typical Ugandan user seeks after and why they are engaging in the space. The second part of the panel moderated by COO of @EzeemoneyUG Flavia Kasenge. Isaac Wabuge of @yellowcard_app on the applications that exist in the region.Some of the challenges existing in logistics in the last mile are also reflected in payment systems. Useful notes from @yellowcard_appThe last mile of delivery in countries that do not have a well designed mapping and post office service can be challenging. This is one of the reasons why Jumia and other food delivery systems have suffered or struggled. This has created an opportunity for those who have set up alternative systems with more knowledgeable mapping and location structure. Interestingly Fintechs and other payment systems also struggle with this last mile challenge. The yellowcard lead talked about how they were using their systems to connect international remittance companies with local payment systems like mobile money and mpesa this solving the last mile issue. 

I have been in the world of web design for over two decades. I have bult with the most basic tools using WYSIWYG from Microsoft Front Page to Adobe GoLive to Dreamweaver and modern takes on incorporating the use of databases to build more robust sites using CMS. 

The changes that we have seen in the industry are breathtaking. One of the most important ways to spot an sector ready for disruption is the rise of gatekeepers who begin to feel the need to demonstrate their indispensable place in the activities relating to those tasks. After few years of being on the sidelines of application design (my first encounter with an app builder was in 2011 where he urged me to start application design) i have finally made the leap and i have had AI and Chat bots to help. 

This podcast is therefore a conversation about one of these tools and how it has simplified a pretty complex site creation challenge saving me thousands of USD. 

The tool we are talking about it Figma and the task was the creation of a fully functional podcast site complete with episode summaries and transcripts. 

For the month of June there are several ideas that we are pursuing. The first is written by the NFX team and is an attempt to look into the future post #SAAS. SAAS stands for software as a service. This has formed about 85% of all software development work and has been responsible for the vast amounts of revenue generated. So when NFX suggested that something bigger was on its way, we became interested.

For those who are passionate about the development of the continent and the use of education to achieve this, we have a Q and A with Kevin Tusiime. He is currently working on an interesting incentive-based learning model. We talk about this and other projects as well as dive into his mind for insights about how we can do better.

While listening to a podcast, i came across an amazing conversation that highlighted the important difference between #defensibility and #differentiation. This distinction will help you ensure that you are competing at a higher level and thinking deeper around the product or service that you are offering.

In our new social media section, i wanted to share some ideas i found from a developer on the complexities of navigating the investor/founder relationship. The author Byron Biroli has identified some of the gaps that exist in the country and its hashtag#ecosystem and strategically put his business in a unique position to attract investors. Founders will benefit from this template. Follow Byron Biroli for more.

For books we share a something we came across through organic engagement with the online community covering the subject of democracy. The book-Breaking Democracy’s Chains helps us learn how political parties are currently hindering the democratic process serving as a great platform to explore this corrosion. Follow Metin Pekin

For those who want something fun to watch with a lot to teach about current events especially the importance of land in the United States and its use in ranching. Yellowstone tackles the historical issues around land ownership and development and the entrenched land-owning class. It is also a masterclass in #filial relations and past #trauma.

For the month of May we are winding down on a piece that as shared from the work of Alessandro Palombo. He wrote extensively about his time in the Emirates. I wanted this piece to be a guide for other nations that were looking to attract citizens of other countries into their geographies. This final piece is more personal declaring why the author chose to leave and some of the challenges he faced. We are living in interesting times and with the challenges countries in the Middle East are facing this article will prove handy. Our second conversation was built around Artificial Intelligence. The plan is to give you a bird’s eye view so that you can chose where to plug yourself based on the industry in which you currently find yourself. The easiest way not to be replaced by these emerging technologies is to skill up. Our piece on AI should be read with the realization that the hardware layer of AI has had some headway in the Middle East and has been used by some countries as a means to 
diversify national investment. We think that this is an area that we should therefore watch. Our Q and A features someone we have been longing to host and talk to.
Endre Vestvik shares timeless insights in to those that want to learn more about the Coffee Sector in Uganda and beyond. In our Book Recommendation we share a practical guide to software production penned by the team at Basecamp. The book was birthed by the demand expressed by many in the field for a comprehensive guide based on the success of Basecamp in product dev. For Film we think readers will enjoy a movie called Independent. It tackles quite a number of areas including electoral process, campaign funding, media #freedom and that thin line between media complicity in flawed elections.

In this conversation we talk to Elie Bizaglou of FishTank VC about one of the products he has created to help make the process of fundraising easier. After dealing with the complications of being misunderstood and ignored Elie decided to combine the attractiveness of TikTok like interface with the idea that pitching is increasingly complicated. By making it easier to put founders on one side with an interface and funders on the other side of it, he hopes to simplify fundraising where these two people can meet and quickly invest. https://www.fishtank.vc

In this conversation we talk to Elie Bizaglou of FishTank VC about one of the products he has created to help make the process of fundraising easier. After dealing with the complications of being misunderstood and ignored Elie decided to combine the attractiveness of TikTok like interface with the idea that pitching is increasingly complicated. By making it easier to put founders on one side with an interface and funders on the other side of it, he hopes to simplify fundraising where these two people can meet and quickly invest. https://www.fishtank.vc

In the month of April, there are several ideas that we are pushing based in some parts on the circumstances in which we find ourselves. When we started the year, there were signs that the year would be full of #turmoil. This has been the case. Even as I am sharing a piece about Dubai done by Alessandro Palombo on the benefits of choosing this as a destination for #relocation, recent events between Iran on one hand and the USA and Israel on another are further testing this idea. In the month of February we covered in brief some of the #geopolitical trends that were affecting us into the new year and how these intricacies were going to force us to rethink many often mundane ideas and plans. Win this case it was the attack on Venezuela which seems to be fueled US moves in the Middle East urged on by the Israelis. The piece about Dubai is really meant to help other countries that are not taking advantage of modern day trends like #Digital #Nomadism. The second piece that we think is important is a discussion about #ArtificialIntelligence. Here, we are interested in giving our readers a forensic look at structure of AI and where they can position themselves for a future that seems to favor the machines and those who are familiar with communication via Machine Interface. Interestingly, the digital layer of AI has been used by many countries in the Middle East as a new pivot away from oil. This digital layer is powered by massive data centers which have found a home in these middle eastern countries. An attack on these countries for collaborating with the Americans is therefore a direct attack on a promising sector. This is an area we are watching keenly. Finally in our Q and A with notable people in the technology and innovation landscape of Uganda, we share a conversation with Mawanda Lawrence Maranda of Araknerd and Lamwad Engineering Labs. Our recommended book for the month is the mom test. It is essentially a practical guide on how to talk to your customers and extract maximum value from them about the products you are building. These are probably the most important conversations you will have in the stages of growth of your company.

This week we are thrilled to have a conversation with an author who is tackling an important subject for those of us in business. Metin Pekin is the author of a book called Breaking Democracy’s Chain. 

In the book and this podcast in particular, we talk about his approach where he guides us through the history of the democratic practice in the US and the warnings that were given by the founding fathers g about challenges in the future that would affect democracy. He enlightens us on what makes parties so dangerous to the democratic movement. He shares what levers are utilized by the external forces to weaken parties. Lobby Groups, Think Tanks and the incentives used for political leaders through revolving doors. In the third chapter of the book and in or we touch on just three parts of the ideas as he has presented where he debunks the myth of party necessity. Here he talks about the efficiency illusion (the myth that parted increase efficiency), he sheds light on the illusion of choice (why the voter is really often just choosing between two of the same thing) and accountability mirage (how the inability to blame the candidate for failures related to the voter’s choice hinders vote strength). We recommend that you buy the book to find out 9 other myths about political parties and their role. In chapter four and five the author talks about parties and violence and how these two are related. He also helps describe party machinery. In this conversation he helps us understand how party systems and structures can be utilized in polarization of voters and how culture can be misdirected and weaponized when identities and clustered into groups. Finally Métin Pekin also clarifies on the role of the Fourth Estate and how its effectiveness has been stifled. The law and the judicial system are also shown in light of the bigger picture of the democratic process. https://tinyurl.com/474kpznd listen here.

This week we are thrilled to have a conversation with an author who is tackling an important subject for those of us in business. Metin Pekin is the author of a book called Breaking Democracy’s Chain. 

In the book and this podcast in particular, we talk about his approach where he guides us through the history of the democratic practice in the US and the warnings that were given by the founding fathers g about challenges in the future that would affect democracy. He enlightens us on what makes parties so dangerous to the democratic movement. He shares what levers are utilized by the external forces to weaken parties. Lobby Groups, Think Tanks and the incentives used for political leaders through revolving doors. In the third chapter of the book and in or we touch on just three parts of the ideas as he has presented where he debunks the myth of party necessity. Here he talks about the efficiency illusion (the myth that parted increase efficiency), he sheds light on the illusion of choice (why the voter is really often just choosing between two of the same thing) and accountability mirage (how the inability to blame the candidate for failures related to the voter’s choice hinders vote strength). We recommend that you buy the book to find out 9 other myths about political parties and their role. In chapter four and five the author talks about parties and violence and how these two are related. He also helps describe party machinery. In this conversation he helps us understand how party systems and structures can be utilized in polarization of voters and how culture can be misdirected and weaponized when identities and clustered into groups. Finally Métin Pekin also clarifies on the role of the Fourth Estate and how its effectiveness has been stifled. The law and the judicial system are also shown in light of the bigger picture of the democratic process. https://tinyurl.com/474kpznd listen here.