Symposium: The Last Shall Be First — Africa’s Practical Path to Leading the AI Revolution [Lagos]

​What if Africa’s greatest challenges — late industrialization, distributed infrastructure, diverse cultural logic — are actually its strongest assets in the age of intelligent machines?

​What if these very conditions offer us the rare opportunity to build AI-native systems — not by retrofitting outdated models but by solving real, urgent needs with bold new thinking? By leveraging the intelligence offered by these new technologies to not only solve our problems but to build AI-native societies.

​And what if, by embracing our own context and reimagining the future, Africa could define a new kind of leadership — not built on domination, but undeniable relevance?

​This will be the first Ai Salon symposium that our Ai Salon Nigeria team will be holding. We look forward to hosting leaders, practitioners, policymakers, builders, thinkers and cultural leaders who are daring to take bold steps in achieving this vision.

Hosted on the sidelines of the Global AI Summit on Africa, our conversations will challenge entrenched narratives, spotlight African ingenuity, and explore how we can turn historic disadvantages into a blueprint for AI leadership in our different countries.

​We have limited seats, and the responses to the questions asked during registration help us understand the perspective and curiosity each person brings.

​This Symposium is sponsored by Data Science Nigeria and in partnership with CcHUB Design Lab and Africa Deep Tech Community.

​​​​​The AI Salon is a global community founded in San Francisco focused on intimate, small-sized group discussions on the sociological, economic, cultural, and philosophical impacts and meaning of AI developments. We host small group discussions, all of which you can find on our calendar. You can find summaries of our previous conversations on our substack.

​Note: Space is limited, and we can’t accept everyone. The conversation will be recorded (audio only) for documentation and reflection, as part of the global Ai Salon archive.