Publications
Partners
Capitec Bank and Praelexis recently hosted a high-profile Machine Learning Summer School in Stellenbosch, featuring expert speakers from around the world.
This initiative aims to ensure African representation through the exchange of knowledge and ideas in the era of machine learning.
According to Graham Lee, head of digital, data solutions and client insights at Capitec Bank, waves of technologies in the form of AI, digitisation, the Internet of Things, nanotechnology and more are disrupting almost every industry in every country.
He said a growing digital divide is a real fear and to ensure SA is not left behind, the country needs to significantly improve education, particularly in science, technology, education and maths in order to improve the understanding and adoption of new technologies.
"Beyond that we need to grow and elevate expert practitioners so that they are not merely followers but true leaders in these fields by collaborating with some of the world's leading experts in machine learning," he said.
"The biggest misconception is that machines can do all of the job for you. Machine learning is only useful in a world where there are large quantities of high-quality data, which means a lot of preparation work beforehand."
In his view, South African banks are in a good space in terms of the practical application of different types of machine learning and are doing very well compared to banks in the rest of the world.
Dr McElory Hoffmann, CEO of Praelexis, told Fin24 that the conference is both technical as well as academic in nature. Its relevance is that people from all over the world came to South Africa to attend it.
"We have to retain talent and also get the right world class talent developed in SA. One will see the benefit of a conference such as this one more in the long-term," Hoffmann told Fin24.
"The better the data management talent in SA, the more problems we will be able to solve if we have experts here. The conference also brought great networking opportunities."
He said that, although jobs will not be replaced by machines in the near-term, it is a subject that SA has to start discussing.
"We don't have all the answers, but the world-wide 4th industrial revolution is starting, and SA must play its cards right in the process," said Hoffmann.
"Tech is a way of levelling the playing field - like what happened in Africa with mobile phones."
He is pleased with the passion for the field of AI and machine learning that he noticed among delegates - including students - at the conference.
"It is possible for SA to compete with the rest of the world in this field. There is some world-class work being done here and by South Africans elsewhere in the world," said Hoffmann.
