▲ Alibaba Group
Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly expanding its influence in Africa by leveraging its cost-effectiveness.
According to the U.S. daily The New York Times (NYT), developers in African nations such as Kenya, Uganda, and Nigeria are predominantly adopting AI models from Chinese companies like Alibaba and DeepSeek rather than cutting-edge U.S. AI systems from OpenAI or Anthropic.
Ernest Mwebaze, an AI developer in Uganda, tested both U.S. and Chinese AI models while developing an AI system that supports dozens of indigenous languages in his country, ultimately choosing Alibaba's AI model.
This decision was driven by the fact that Alibaba's AI is affordable and allows for the easy creation of customized models using proprietary data.
The AI service he developed delivers weather forecasts and agricultural information to farmers in local languages.
The primary reason African developers prefer Chinese AI is its high cost-performance ratio.
While U.S.-made AI offers cutting-edge performance, most services are closed and paid, incurring continuous costs based on usage.
In contrast, Chinese AI is released as open source, allowing anyone to download and modify it for free without requiring separate approval.
Users can build their own AI services by simply bearing the server costs.
This aligns well with the demands of African developers who prefer AI that operates efficiently under limited resources rather than requiring ultra-high performance.
Moses Kemibaro, a digital marketing business owner in Kenya, said, "A Toyota hatchback is enough to take a child to school, so why use an expensive Ferrari?" He added, "Chinese AI can reduce overall deployment costs by up to 90%."
The Chinese government is also using this trend as an opportunity to expand its soft power through AI.
Chinese President Xi Jinping emphasized during an AI-related event held in July that the benefits of AI should be shared by everyone, and seven African countries, including Kenya and South Africa, have signed AI cooperation agreements with China.
However, Chinese AI has not completely replaced U.S. AI.
General users in Kenya widely use U.S. AI services such as ChatGPT and Claude, and U.S. AI is still heavily utilized for tasks requiring high accuracy, according to the NYT.
Furthermore, a significant portion of Chinese open-source AI runs on Amazon and Microsoft clouds, allowing U.S. companies to reap profits from data centers.
Nevertheless, concerns are growing in Africa that heavy reliance on U.S. AI could be risky, especially after the U.S. government recently requested Anthropic to block Kenyan users' access to its model "Fable," the NYT reported.
(Photo: AP, Yonhap News)
※
Copying, redistribution, and unauthorized use in AI training are strictly prohibited.