Samuel Dodoo/Albert Allotey
Accra, Nov. 19, GNA – Madam Susan Adu-Aryee, the Chairperson of the Advocacy and Project Committee of the Zonta Club of Accra Metropolitan, has admonished the youth to experience Artificial Intelligence (AI) responsibly because of its immense opportunities and challenges.
She said during a webinar organised by the Zonta Club of Accra Metropolitan (ZCAM) in collaboration with other Zonta clubs in Ghana as they commemorated the 104th Zonta Day across the world on November 8, 2023.
The webinar was on topic: “Preparing the youth to adopt Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the Digital Transformation Era.”
The selected topic was gleaned from Zonta International’s Universal theme of Digitalization this year.
Individuals and professional women and men from various sectors as well as administrators, and about 2,000 students from Senior High Schools including Holy Child School, Accra Girls, Labone, St Louis Kumasi, Achimota and O’Reilly participated in the webinar.
The two-hour webinar was delivered by two seasoned resource persons, Mr Richard Osei-Anim, a Managing Partner of the Hatchery and Coral Reef Innovation Group and Dr Mrs Anane-Mensah, an HR Management Practitioner, a Counselling Psychologist and a Leadership Development Coach.
Mrs Lauretta Yetsa Aryeetey, the President of the Zonta Accra Metropolitan Club of Ghana, told the audience that the Zonta International was founded in 1919 and that it was a leading organisation of professionals, empowering women worldwide through service and advocacy.
She said it has more than 28,000 members who belonged to more than 1100 Zonta Clubs in 63 countries and geographical areas.
“Zontians all over the world, volunteer their time, talents and support to Local and international service projects,” she stated, and emphasised that digitalization and AI had a profound impact on the daily reality of the youth.
Mrs Aryeetey said digitalization and AI were increasing at a rapid pace and therefore it was important that Ghanaian youth also adopt them intentionally and responsibly.
“Young people in all parts of the world are currently exploring AI as an emerging field to gain relevant skills, pursue unusual careers and accelerate innovation and learning. All these will contribute to shaping their own future and the future of technology globally,” she stated.
She said: “This webinar was meant to present young people, especially girls, the opportunity to better understand the reality of digitization in their lives, the implications of digitalization and AI in their work and social lives and the degree to which they must prepare and adapt to face the challenges and opportunities these trends have to offer now and in the near future.”
Mr Richard Osei-Anim, who gave an overview of AI, its specific concepts while using context specific scenarios, said some of the technical and social skills the youth needed to empower themselves in the Ghanaian context as well as skills required for AI related jobs and ethics.
He told the audience that, globally the demand for AI skills had increased by 450 per cent and the world’s data, if supported by AI will grow ten fold in the next 10 years and that “The next generation of jobs will require AI to solve problems in a faster and more efficient manner.”
Mrs Mary Anane-Mensah, Human Resource Management practitioner, a Counselling Psychologist and Leadership Development Coach, said AI has been recommended for problem solving, critical thinking, self-management and people management skills, in order to mitigate concerns that AI would cause a reduction in “brain power”.
A responsible use of AI, she said, would help in maintaining competencies and cognitive abilities.
She advised the youth to minimize their engagement in chats on their phones and focus more on human interactions and relationships.
The students expressed concern about AI replacing humans, but they were informed that AI would rather enhance the work of human in different fields and not replace humans in many disciplines.
They were advised to be conscious of how AI could support them in their learning and their world of work, so that they could take advantage of it.
GNA