Language & Voice AI for Africa: From Data to Deployment and Impact
- April 30, 2026
- Vukosi Marivate, University of Pretoria; Tavonga Siyavora, Google Research Africa; Tobi Olatunji, Intron Inc; Kiplangat Korir, MsingiAI; John Quinn, Sunbird AI; Girmaw Abebe Tadesse, Microsoft; George Musumba, KICTANeT; Joyce Nabende-Nakatumba, Makerere University; Mercy Muchai, Microsoft; Yann Le Beux
This seminar explores how language and voice AI systems can be built and scaled for African contexts—from community-driven data collection and multilingual foundation models to robust deployment and real-world applications across sectors such as agriculture, health, and public services. We discuss technical advances, evaluation challenges, and ecosystem partnerships needed to ensure these technologies work for Africa’s linguistic diversity and development priorities
Seminar Speakers:
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Associate Professor of Computer Science
University of Pretoria
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Tavonga Siyavora
Product Lead
Google Research Africa
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Tobi Olatunji
Founder/CEO
Intron Inc
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Kiplangat Korir
CEO
MsingiAI
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John Quinn
Director of Research
Sunbird AI
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Girmaw Abebe Tadesse
Principal Research Science Manager
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George Musumba
AI Consultant
KICTANeT
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Joyce Nabende-Nakatumba
Senior Lecturer
Makerere University
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Mercy Muchai
Research Engineer II
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Yann Le Beux
Co-founder & AI Lead, YUX; Team Member, Kitala AI
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