Hitching a ride with AI

HANDBOOK: THE SEQUEL JOURNEYS ACROSS AFRICA

- Arthur Goldstuck

When I wrote the first edition of The Hitchhiker's Guide to AI in 2023, its subtitle was A Handbook For All. That was an obvious theme, given the newness of artificial intelligence at the time and the seismic shock it delivered to the business, academic, and consumer worlds.

Two years later, a bigger picture has emerged. While many still need a guide to the basics of AI, the sequel, The Hitchhiker's Guide to AI: The African Edge, steps past the introductions and into the spaces where AI is already in use.

It is a tour through African industries, professions, and communities that have moved from experimentation to integration. The structure is a sequence of encounters, each chapter centered on a person, a role, or a sector, showing what AI looks like when it meets need and ingenuity.

From manual to map Each chapter also builds a section of a larger map. The "African Edge" of the title is both a slogan and a recurring condition.

A mobile-first digital landscape, a young and connected population, and the need to work with constrained resources create a setting where AI is often tested in situations global suppliers do not anticipate. That can mean chatbots fluent in indigenous languages, or agricultural models tuned to microclimates that have no equivalent in Europe or North America.

This edition is populated with coaches, farmers, coders, artists, executives, and engineers whose use of AI is specific and embedded in their work. It treats AI less as an abstract force and more as a component within systems already in motion.