The Africa Just AI Conference Proceedings, brings together original research and critical reflections on how Artificial Intelligence (AI) can be designed, governed and deployed in ways that centre justice, equity and African agency, as shared at the conference held in Cape Town, South Africa in June 2024.
The collection includes contributions from across the continent exploring urgent themes such as AI-generated disinformation, feminist AI, algorithmic governance, and data justice in social protection and healthcare. These works reflect the growing body of African scholarship confronting both the harms and possibilities of AI systems within deeply unequal social, economic and political contexts.
“Through compiling the conference proceedings, it has become clear that building a just AI ecosystem in Africa is not merely an aspirational goal but a necessity. The challenges are significant, from addressing the digital divide and data inequalities to ensuring that AI technologies respect and promote human rights and democratic values. However, the opportunities are equally compelling,” writes Dr Scott Timcke, Co-chair of the Just AI Conference.
Taken together, the proceedings underline a key insight from the conference: that calls for responsible or ethical AI must not overshadow more foundational questions of justice. From the political economy of AI development to community-driven data governance models, contributors argue for approaches rooted in structural transformation, participatory design, and collective rights. This aligns with the broader aims of the Africa Just AI research project — to build evidence, capacity and coalitions to ensure AI advances the public interest and redresses, rather than reproduces, global and local inequities.
