Picture a world where misinformation is quickly and accurately addressed, ensuring that the public has access to reliable information.

These visions are becoming a reality thanks to Meta’s groundbreaking Llama technology and the innovators harnessing its power to drive change in Africa.

Recent breakthroughs in AI, and generative AI in particular, have captured the public’s imagination and demonstrated what those developing these technologies have long known — they have the potential to help people do incredible things, create a new era of economic and social opportunities, and give individuals, creators, and businesses new ways to express themselves and connect with people.

As part of Meta’s commitment to open science, the company announced the release of Llama (Large Language Model Meta AI) in February 2023, a cutting-edge foundational large language model designed to advance research in AI.

Like other large language models, Llama works by taking a sequence of words as input and predicting the next word to recursively generate text.

Following this initial release, Meta introduced Llama 2, Llama 3, Llama 3.1 and the most recent iteration, Llama 3.2.

Over the past few years, Meta’s Llama models have demonstrated new capabilities, including generating creative text, solving mathematical theorems, predicting protein structures and answering reading comprehension questions.

The two largest models of the Llama 3.2 collection, 11B and 90B, support image reasoning use cases, such as document-level understanding including charts and graphs, captioning of images, and visual grounding tasks such as directionally pinpointing objects in images based on natural language descriptions.

The lightweight 1B and 3B models are also highly capable with multilingual text generation and tool calling abilities.

With more than 400 million downloads, companies are using Llama to create localised educational content, summarise video calls, and provide medical information in low-resource settings.

These projects highlight the significant potential AI has to benefit billions of people worldwide.

As technology continues to evolve, innovative minds across Africa are leveraging its power to address pressing social challenges and drive meaningful change.

Two such innovators, Dr. Olubayo (Bayo) Adekanmbi and Olasupo Abideen Opeyemi, are at the forefront of this movement, using Meta’s Llama technology to create solutions that have the potential to transform lives in health, education, finance and digital governance.

Dr. Olubayo (Bayo) Adekanmbi: Leveraging Llama 2 for Social Good

Olubayo Adekanmbi, the CEO of Data Science Nigeria (now known as equalyzAI), is a leading figure in AI research and development.

He’s passionate about using AI to empower individuals and bridge the digital divide. EqualyzAI is building a unique hyperlocal multimodal dataset, models and APIs that unlock the potential of generative AI for native dialect speakers in Africa.

They focus on creating Large Language Models (LLMs) for African languages that can be fine-tuned in response to specific health, finance, agriculture and education needs.

One such innovation is a personalised learning platform, ULearn, built with Llama 2. This platform allows students, teachers and even parents to generate multimedia learning content for elementary science that caters to students’ individual needs, enhancing their learning experience and engagement. Imagine personalised lesson plans, flashcards and animated videos tailored to the needs of every student!

This revolutionary approach transforms education from a one-size-fits-all model to a personalised learning journey.

Additionally, equalyzAI empowers market women with financial literacy tools, fostering economic growth and community stability. Their AI-driven healthcare solutions also improve accessibility and coverage, especially in underserved regions.

Olasupo Abideen Opeyemi: Revolutionising Fact-Checking with Llama 3

Olasupo Abideen Opeyemi, a youth leader and researcher, is dedicated to leveraging technology for social good.

His focus is on the transformative potential of digital governance in driving positive social change. Olasupo has developed various civic tech products to enhance public engagement and digital governance.

Among them is MyAIFactChecker, which tackles the critical issue of misinformation by providing accurate and user-friendly fact-checking capabilities.

MyAIFactChecker Fact-checks Information in Three Main Nigerian Languages in 30 Seconds

MyAIFactChecker leverages Llama 3’s advanced capabilities to address the misinformation problem effectively.

Llama 3’s state-of-the-art contextual understanding and generative AI capabilities enhance the accuracy and relevance of fact-checking.

This user-friendly platform, MyAIFactChecker, supports multiple languages, including French, Swahili and Nigerian local languages, offering a truly inclusive user experience. This multilingual capability, combined with the voice option for fact-checking, breaks down language barriers and offers a more inclusive user experience.

One of the primary impacts of MyAIFactChecker is its ability to rapidly and accurately assess the validity of claims. Traditional fact-checking methods often struggle with the sheer volume of information and can be slow to respond.

By utilising Llama 3 and advanced search APIs, MyAIFactChecker automates the process, allowing for real-time analysis of claims against a broad range of sources.

These models’ advanced contextual understanding and generative capabilities enable the platform to deliver nuanced, detailed responses that go beyond simple true/false evaluations.

This results in more accurate and informative fact-checking that reflects the complexities of the claims.

Olubayo Adekanmbi and Olasupo Abideen are leading the charge in using AI for social good, demonstrating how Meta’s Llama technology can be harnessed to address critical challenges in education, healthcare and misinformation.

Their work not only showcases the transformative potential of AI but also underscores the importance of innovative approaches to solving some of the most pressing issues facing Africa today.

Through their efforts, they are paving the way for a future where technology serves as a powerful catalyst for positive societal change.

Prior to his appointment by Airtel Africa headquartered in London, United Kingdom, Adekanmbi previously worked for MTN in South Africa and Nigeria as Chief Transformation and Strategy Officer, Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer, General Manager, Business Intelligence and Head of Strategy and Analytics.

He has about 21 years cognate industry experience.

Information on Airtel Africa’s website, indicates that Olubayo Adekanmbi will be “responsible for leading strategic business-wide initiatives, including innovation, strategic investment, operational efficiencies, and partnerships. In addition to this, he is also responsible for delivering Airtel Africa’s Group Sustainability. He is part of our Executive Committee and reports directly to Segun Ogunsanya, CEO.”

Olubayo (Bayo) is known for his innovative contribution to strategic innovation and analytics practice in telecommunication.

His work on the use of machine learning algorithm in customer value and risk management earned him global recognition by the U.S. based Corinium Intelligence as one of the Top 100 global innovators in data and analytics.

This solution also earned him a Yello Star award in 2013 for enabling billions of naira in revenue growth.

Bayo is an innovation leader who has driven impactful strategic projects and innovations. He was the Nigeria lead for the MTN Group-led efficiency transformation programme IGNITE, a future-shaping intervention by MTN to accelerate the company’s business and financial performance.

As a strategist, Adekanmbi led many short and long-term strategic initiatives, like e-SIM, 5G trial, data monetization, spectrum acquisition, agile transformation, national roaming pilot, data center, 5G strategy, etc.

He also works at the nexus of the use of artificial intelligence and data science for the attainment of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). One of his works was the evidence-based, national COVID-19 intervention, conducted with the Nigerian Governors’ Forum, using anonymized telecoms mobility data and other multiple points of interest data for social good. In partnership with the GSM Association (GSMA), Cambridge University Press recently published this work.

Olubayo Adekanmbi is the founder of the award-winning non-profit Data Science Nigeria (DSN, now Data Scientists Network), which has evolved into Africa’s number one artificial intelligence learning, research, start-up incubation, social product development network.

Two DSN’s products were recently recognized and listed in the Global Top 100 of artificial intelligence products by the International Research Centre in Artificial Intelligence (IRCAI) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) for their outstanding contribution to the U.N.’s SDGs in the areas of health and education in low-resourced countries.

Olubayo Adekanmbi graduated with Distinction from the University of Reading postgraduate school, United Kingdom, and has also completed both full-time and executive education in many other leading institutions, including Columbia Business School, New York; The University of Chicago Booth School of Business, Chicago; INSEAD Business School, France; Telecoms Training Institute, London; ETH Zurich, Switzerland; and Gatton College of Business at the University of Kentucky, Kentucky.

Source: brandcom.ng