Free Online Course: Introduction to Responsible AI

The African Observatory on Responsible AI is pleased to launch its new free online course, Introduction to Responsible AI, starting this week.

Building and using AI responsibly means understanding the legal frameworks, ethical debates, and governance structures that shape how these systems operate. Without this foundation, innovation risks reinforcing existing inequalities rather than addressing them. This course explores the developing law, policy frameworks, and underlying ideologies surrounding AI through the lens of ethics, governance, and responsible innovation, with a strong focus on African perspectives.

Participants will examine:

• Emerging AI regulations and governance approaches
• Ethical and social implications of AI systems
• The role of AI within the global economy, shaped by histories of colonial inequality
• Gendered and discriminatory impacts of AI
• African policy responses and regulatory developments

Each session has been curated by interdisciplinary experts from law, computational ethics, anthropology, and development studies, ensuring a rich and interdisciplinary learning experience.

Throughout the course, participants are encouraged to critically interrogate AI systems by engaging with questions of colonization, global economic inequality, and structural power.

By the end of the course, learners will have a foundational understanding of the social, ethical, and discriminatory impacts of AI in Africa, and the tools to critically engage with emerging governance and regulatory developments across the continent.

NOTE: Participants will have four weeks to complete the course from the start of the cohort, with each cohort limited to 200 participants.