Two Pretoria learners have made South African science fair history after becoming the first Grade 7 students in 39 years to be named overall winners of the Gauteng-North iMBEWU Science Fair, competing against learners up to Grade 12. Gustav Heesen of Afrikaans Hoër Seunskool and Johan Vorster of Pretoria Boys High School, both formerly from […]

The GSMA and French AI research company Pleias have released CommonLingua, an open-source language identification model covering 334 languages including 61 African languages, addressing a foundational gap in AI systems that has caused African-language text to be routinely misidentified. Released under the GSMA’s African AI Languages Model Project, the two-million-parameter model achieves 83%...

South Africa’s Communications and Digital Technologies Minister Solly Malatsi has withdrawn the country’s Draft National Artificial Intelligence Policy after an internal investigation confirmed that the document contains fictitious sources in its reference list, in what the minister described as an unacceptable failure of integrity. “Following revelations that the Draft National...

Artificial intelligence is rapidly transforming mineral exploration and mining operations across Africa, with countries from the Democratic Republic of Congo to Botswana deploying the technology to accelerate discovery, reduce risk and unlock what analysts estimate is $8.5 trillion in untapped mineral resources. In the DRC, AI is reshaping exploration at scale. Speaking at African Mining […]

Analysis in brief: Africa’s digital evolution is entering a governance phase. African nations are taking control of their online information systems as a part of an overall effort to assert governance over artificial intelligence, data and digital and telecommunications infrastructure to shape long-term economic and strategic outcomes. Digital infrastructure is more than the physical mechanism […]

Three hundred students from Tunisia’s University of Sfax have set a Guinness World Record by building a complete AI-powered startup in less than three hours, demonstrating how artificial intelligence is compressing timelines that would traditionally take weeks or months. The achievement took place during a scientific forum titled “Artificial Intelligence at the Heart of Value […]

South African consumers are shifting away from entertainment-focused online subscriptions toward services offering productivity and everyday convenience, with artificial intelligence subscriptions recording the second-fastest growth of any category over the past year, according to the Discovery Bank SpendTrend26 report. AI subscription payment volumes grew 125% during the year, and AI services...

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has been appointed African Union Champion for Artificial Intelligence and Digital Health, in recognition of his leadership and Ethiopia’s expanding role in digital innovation and emerging technologies across the continent. The African Union said in a message accompanying the appointment that Abiy’s advocacy has helped position AI as a key […]

Burundi has taken a significant step in its digital transformation agenda with the national validation workshop for its National Artificial Intelligence Strategy 2026-2030, held April 21 in Bujumbura. The workshop brought together stakeholders to validate a strategic framework intended to guide the responsible adoption of AI across public governance, economic development and service delivery....

Ghana has launched its first National Artificial Intelligence Strategy, setting out an ambition to become a leading African AI hub by 2035 with a targeted $45 billion contribution to gross domestic product and $18 billion in total local and foreign private sector investment. President John Dramani Mahama launched the strategy April 24 in Accra, joined […]

Two officers from Florida police station were among eight people arrested in connection with a business robbery at a storage facility in Bedfordview, Ekurhuleni.

Police have arrested a 26-year-old Brazilian national at OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg after discovering cocaine with an estimated street value of R8.7 million concealed in the person’s luggage.

Botswana Minerals is deploying artificial intelligence alongside conventional geological methods to accelerate mineral exploration across its licenses in Ngamiland, with early results revealing significant copper, silver, lead and zinc anomalies in the Damara Belt. Phase 1 of the program has produced three notable findings across the company’s 7,074 square kilometers in the north-eastern...

Mozambican health authorities have announced a plan to digitize 63 health facilities as part of a broader strategy to modernize the country’s health system, introduce artificial intelligence and expand telemedicine services, funded by a $40 million World Bank disbursement. José Manuel, national director of planning in the Ministry of Health, announced the initiative on the […]

Libyan telecommunications company Almadar Aljadid has partnered with Egypt-based AI developer WideBot to implement a conversational AI chatbot platform designed to enhance customer service across Messenger and web chat channels. The AI-powered virtual assistant will communicate with customers in Arabic, English and the Libyan dialect, providing personalized responses aimed at improving customer...

Tadhamun Bank has partnered with technology firm JMR Infotech to deploy an AI-powered chatbot and voicebot across web, WhatsApp and Messenger channels, enabling customers to conduct banking services including account onboarding, funds transfers and real-time query resolution through conversational interfaces. The solution is designed to integrate with the bank’s existing Oracle FLEXCUBE and...

Libya’s Sirte Oil and Gas Production and Manufacturing Company has completed a directional drilling operation at the Al-Khair oil field using an autonomous artificial intelligence application, marking the first such operation in Libya and what the National Oil Corporation describes as only the second of its kind in the world. The National Oil Corporation said […]

A Cairo-based artificial intelligence startup has released Horus 1.0-4B, a fully open-source large language model built in Egypt that outperforms several significantly larger global models on multilingual and Arabic-language benchmarks, in what developers describe as only the second open-source Egyptian AI model released in recent years. TokenAI, founded by developer Assem Sabry, released the...

Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly has overseen the launch of The Spine, a mega development in New Cairo described as an AI-powered cognitive city that its developers say will contribute approximately 1% of Egypt’s gross domestic product and create more than 150,000 jobs. The project is led by Talaat Moustafa Group in partnership with the […]

Orange Egypt has signed a memorandum of understanding with smart urban developer Paragon Adeer and global innovation platform Plug and Play to launch Egypt’s first artificial intelligence campus at the Sumou Boulevard development in New Cairo, with a four-year program targeting the development of 100 growth-stage AI startups by 2030. The agreement was signed at […]