President William Ruto on Monday announced that the Government of Kenya has been using Artificial Intelligence(AI) to award bursaries and education funds to students.
The Head of State made the announcement during a roundtable discussion themed the U.S - Kenya Business and Investment Roundtable In New York.
Responding to questions on how Kenya had leveraged technological advancements like AI in its development and state projects, the president told the roundtable that the use of the new technology has been instrumental in the education sector among others
Ruto further noted that that the process was already underway with a means testing for the use of AI already in process.
‘’Already we are leveraging AI to do two very important things and one of them is on Education for our means testing instruments on how we are distributing education money to beneficiaries,’’ Ruto revealed.
According to Ruto, the use of AI in Kenya's education system will help the government determine the financial status and capability of each parent before allocating money to students in school.
He expressed confidence that the use of modern technology will help the government assess the financial needs of every student at different levels of Education in the country.
‘’By this, we can use AI to get the algorithms that will give us what is the financial status of each parent,’’ he added.
On the legality of the same, Ruto told the roundtable that already there was a legislation process in Parliament that would help guide the process of the use of AI in Kenya’s education and other sectors of the economy including the distribution of fertilisers to farmers.
‘’We have just finished the policy and I am happy to report here that Parliament has now ceased with the legislation and guidelines that will support our AI journey,’’ Ruto stated.
He added that the government was motivated by the uptake in the use of AI, especially by young Kenyans who were already working with Artificial Intelligence companies locally.
This comes at the backdrop of intensified confusion over the new university funding model that has attracted criticism from various stakeholders within the education sector.
University students within this month alone have taken to the streets to protest the confusion occasioned by the new funding model that they described as very discriminatory.
