Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Hard Numbers

Hard number: Some African states turn to AI surveillance

Hard number: Some African states turn to AI surveillance
Zac Weisz

While China has long been a leader in infrastructure investment across the African continent, it’s found a new way to continue to expand its influence – AI-powered surveillance technology. According to a recent study, many of these new systems have even been funded by Chinese banks. Nigeria boasts the continent's largest network of smart CCTV cameras, spending $470 million to install around 10,000 cameras. Some experts are worried about the lack of accountability when deploying these systems, especially under authoritarian governments.

More For You

US manufacturers shedding jobs
Natalie Johnson
Investment in manufacturing construction has also fallen 16% during that period, despite public investment pledges of some $900 billion from companies over the past year and a half. Donald Trump has promised to use tariffs, deregulation, and tax cuts to spur a “golden age” of manufacturing in the United States. But despite a modest increase in [...]
Cuba’s old guard gets even older
Will Fitzpatrick
Raúl Castro, younger brother of Fidel, has been synonymous with the Cuban regime that has frustrated and confounded American presidents for decades. Though he stepped back from official duties in 2021, he continues to serve as a symbolic leader and as the general of Cuba’s Revolutionary Armed Forces. But Castro is ringing in his birthday with an [...]
Anthropic prepares for blockbuster public offering
Will Fitzpatrick
The maker of the large-language model Claude became the latest AI giant to file to go public, following a similar move by SpaceX. OpenAI is likely to follow suit. Anthropic’s market debut could arrive as soon as this fall. It’s not clear, though, how many shares it will offer to the public, but the IPO is set to make the company worth above $1 [...]
Japan's SoftBank zooms past Toyota
Will Fitzpatrick
SoftBank surpassed the Japanese carmaker after pledging over the weekend to invest as much as €75 billion ($87 billion) to build Europe’s largest AI facility in France, helping to boost its share price by 14% on Monday – enough for it to overtake Toyota in terms of market capitalization. Toyota’s ousting from Japan’s top spot reflects the surging [...]