A United States artificial intelligence (AI) company has entered into a partnership with Kenya’s University of Nairobi (UoN), in what could be a major step forward to help advance the Generative AI (GenAI) industry in Kenya.
The partnership will entail the exposure of students and faculty to the rapidly evolving GenAI environment via part-time employment opportunities with the company, Samasource, or Sama, which is providing training, equipment, materials and work areas in different fields of education to facilitate the partnership.
The deal is also meant to bridge the gap between academic training and industry requirements, to promote diversity and reduce biases, while also closing the gender gap in technology.
The university will also benefit from partnerships Sama has made with leading companies around the world supporting the AI modelling needs of brands such as Google, Nvidia, Ford and Walmart with the part-time positions being paid from clients’ contracts.
A partnership at ‘an opportune time’
It has come at an opportune time as the UoN prepares to establish an AI school, said Professor Stephen Kiama, UoN’s vice-chancellor.
“Our partnership with Sama presents a significant step forward for students and faculty, providing a unique platform for students to apply their academic knowledge in a real-world setting, enhancing their learning and experience and better preparing them for the demands of the AI industry,” the vice-chancellor said of the development announced recently.
In turn, Annepeace Alwala, Sama’s vice president Global Service Delivery, said the partnership is to create opportunities for the youth to excel in the field of AI, offering students practical experience, and is an investment in the future and growth of the technology sector in Kenya.
The UoN is the first academic institution Samasource has entered into an agreement with, she explained.
Samasource, which has its global headquarters in San Francisco, US, is also based in Nairobi, Kenya, and Kampala and Gulu in Uganda.
“We are exploring other partnerships and have been approached by other universities interested in entering into a memorandum of understanding with Sama,” Alwala said.
Offering part-time employment to students while they are still in school helps them to gain valuable experience that will serve them after graduation, while faculty can take advantage of Sama’s educational resources to continue staying up-to-date with the latest developments, also supplementing their income from part-time employment, she noted.
Sama had opted to begin with the UoN because it is the country’s largest university and is also embracing AI and GenAI with its newly founded School of Artificial Intelligence, Alwala added.
Beneficiaries will begin with tasks such as text analysis, text creation, and 2D-3D data points “and a wide variety of model types”, she said. In addition, all work will follow both general “onboarding and training” for the specific projects that they are assigned to.
Students and faculty with specialised experience will work on tasks that correspond with their strengths, including mathematics and coding, while those with medical experience will perform tasks such as annotating computed tomography imaging (CT) scans on patients, she disclosed.
Questions about labour practices
The development comes months after the company was accused of paying low wages of US$1.32 and US$2 an hour for workers it engaged in Nairobi on behalf of OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, for outsourced work to Kenyan digital workers to make the chatbot less toxic.
The data ‘labellers’ were paid the amount depending on seniority and performance in the ‘sweatshop’ where digital workers from various African countries were allegedly paid the low wages to moderate Facebook content, according to a Time article.
Sama insists that it pays all its workers decent wages commensurate with their work and in recognition of the cost of living, among other factors.
The contentious project with OpenAI was a pilot and Sama ended early due to the nature of the content. Sama, said Alwala, is no longer in the business of content moderation and has not been “for nearly a year-and-a-half”.
“This partnership was developed after extensive consultations between UoN and Sama. We will treat these part-time employees the same as we do our full-time employees, with dignity, respect, creating meaningful and dignified work in formal employment, and living wages,” Alwala told University World News in Nairobi.
“We have always been dedicated to paying a living wage – using internationally recognised methodologies to calculate that, while regularly paying them. We will use the same standards for these part-time employees,” said Alwala, who leads the 4,400 workers currently engaged by the company in its Africa offices.
She said that, when working on the OpenAI project, employees earned between KSh26,600 (about US$206) and KSh45,000 (about US$350) per month, plus bonuses, incentives and benefits – an equivalent of US$1.46 and US$3.74 per hour after taxes and before bonuses, higher than the average monthly salary in Kenya, of approximately KSh20,123 (about US$156).
The deal was above board, crafted by legal and technical experts from the two parties for the mutual benefit of the parties, she added.
The UoN did not respond to a request by University World News for comment on the deal.
BY: Maina Waruru
