RADICAL REALIST

Lady Mariéme Jamme is a powerful speaker from the moment she is handed a microphone.

Speaking at The Conduit’s gathering on AI and equality in Education, Jamme began by dropping hints about her background that made listeners as curious about her trajectory as they were about the technology she promotes.

While talking about her experience teaching girls to build a chatbot in a Kenyan refugee camp, she casually mentioned that she learned to code in the evenings at the Guildford Library in Surrey after spending her day cleaning houses. A little while later, she slipped in how she had no formal education when she arrived in the UK thirty years ago from Dakar, and that she became literate after teaching herself to read as a teenager.

It becomes clear that ‘equality in education’ aren’t just buzz words for Jamme, but a lived experience that has turned her career into a crusade to make sure every child has the resources they need to learn.

“A sixteen-year-old girl in Dakar wants a safe space to learn. My library in Guilford was that” she tells the audience. “We must build institutes where young people feel safe.”

After attending the University of Surrey, she built a technology career that has seen her gone on to work at Microsoft, HSBC, and most recently as the founder of the iamtheCODE Foundation. Her trajectory is proof of what can happen when students of any age or background are given the right tools and a safe space to learn.

Joining Jamme on the panel were Aanya Niaz, Global Education Equity Leader at Amazon Web Services, and moderator Dr. Mhairi Aitken, Senior Ethics Fellow at The Alan Turing Institute.

Aitken began the conversation by asking the panellists how educators can empower young people to lead the way in technology. Niaz grounded her response by answering, “Education first, tech second,” and added that educators need to create systems that welcome feedback. “It is empowering to observe how much fun young leaders are having with AI,” she said, “The ways they are engaging with AI are changing all the time.”

Central to empowering young leaders will be prioritizing designs that allow for socio-emotional learning to support young people with the technological advancements that are coming: “Use AI to prepare for AI,” Niaz suggested.

When asked whether there needs to be global frameworks around AI and education, Jamme jumped in to say that people on the ground are not waiting on governments. “We need to look at humanity,” she urged, “I believe AI will change lives of people waiting on government.”

She spoke passionately about shop keepers in Peru using AI to help them with their businesses, and women using AI in Senegal and Burkina Faso to educate their communities about female genital mutilation. “AI will create an equilibrium where the poorest of the poor will build their AI bots.”

The great thing about AI for Jamme is that it brings equality in access to information, so that students in Kenya learning about health and science have the same information as students in schools in Guilford.

Regarding equality, Dr. Aitken asked the panellists to consider the risks around the role AI can play in education, and how it can be used to close or exacerbate achievement gaps.
“I think it is too early to see how AI can close these gaps,” quipped Jamme, “Many people are not aware of what AI is.” Several countries across the world are only beginning to implement AI learning programmes. Jamme pointed to places like Rwanda where the government has just opened its first AI institute.

Aanya Niaz broke the question down into smaller parts. Rather than looking at how AI can improve learning outcomes, it is first important to ask what humans need, and then asking how AI can meet that need.

“What do individuals need to be resilient today?” she asks.

“In the age of AI, we should centre the conversation around meeting human needs first, including empowering humans to gain digital literacy. Central to that will be developing AI policies that leaders around the world can digest with ease. A report generated with AI in one country and with one framework in mind, might not be easily interpreted in another.

“Some countries are currently deliberating about putting policies in place that focus on how AI impacts K through 12 learning and curricula? What is the role of the educator in AI and how can we help educators befriend AI? Some countries may not have this knowledge simply because the format in which research reports are published may not be digestible for them.”

Towards the end of the discussion an audience member asked the panellists what the core values of AI should be moving forward. Lady Mariéme Jamme spoke about her experience going to Davos and telling world leaders that when it comes to AI learning courses, “Africa is not paying.”

“When you are dealing with war zone countries, people who have suffered for decades, you need to ask how do you give these people a skill?. That is why I use my platform to say AI is a public good. Nobody is paying. We need to make it accessible and free.”

Without a free, accessible and safe library, Lady Mariéme Jamme would have found it more difficult to develop her own talents and become the leader that has inspired other young learners around the world. Making knowledge accessible, whether that be in books or the newest technology, will always be central to empowering young people to make the most of their lives.

Watch the full panel discussion here.