The Centring Data in African AI workshop examines the challenges and opportunities surrounding data in African AI through both technical and socio-technical lenses. In particular, it highlights the importance of African data as a means for local communities to assert greater agency and ownership within the AI value chain.
The lightning talk session aims to highlight a variety of ground-level viewpoints from individuals, researchers, practitioners, community organizers, and other contributors across the African continent. Accepted talks will showcase practical experiences, innovative methodologies, and ongoing efforts that emphasize data as a foundational resource for AI development.
We encourage you to apply for a lightning talk session at this workshop. Some of our focus areas include:
- Human Labour & Fair Compensation in Data Work
- Community-Led Approaches to Data Collection
- Governance, Access, and Ownership of Data
- Cultural Sovereignty and Data Representation
- Ethical, Policy, and Funding Dimensions of Data
- Tools and Infrastructure for Data Workflows
- Evaluating and Measuring Dataset Quality
- Designing and Managing Data Annotation Pipelines
- Synthetic Data Curation and Generation
- Challenges of Building Open-Source Data Tools
- Bridging the Gap Between Data and Product Design
- Ensuring Model and Dataset Alignment (“Model–Data Fit”)
For questions, issues, feedback, etc, please do not hesitate to reach us via email at centring-data-in-african-ai@googlegroups.com
Application deadline: June 27th, 2025 July 4th, 2025, 23:59 CET