Artificial Intelligence (AI) is poised to revolutionize Nigeria’s critical sectors and democratize access to education, Mr. Chibuike Aguene, the founder of the first Indigenous startup to build a super-intelligent AI tutor, has said.

Aguene, who is also the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Bildup Technology, highlighted AI’s transformative potential, noting that it has redefined the concept of knowledge.

He urged the authorities to harness technological innovation, emphasizing that Nigeria has a unique opportunity to take the lead in AI advancement and shape the future of education and economic development.

He said for the first time in human history, there is an intelligent companion that can reason, think, and make judgments, which might be the greatest invention so far in human history.

According to him, “AI is revolutionizing every industry. The human race, as we know it, has actually changed with AI. So, this is a new era. It’s an exciting time to be alive, and what I always say is that Nigeria should not prepare for the AI era. Nigeria should lead. During the mobile phone era, we were preparing.

“We didn’t provide leadership; during the social media era, we also prepared. We didn’t provide leadership. This is the Artificial Intelligence era. I think it’s time for us to lead. We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to level the playing field when it comes to access to quality education compared to what is happening, maybe, in the United States or China.

“This is our opportunity to give every child in Nigeria and Africa access to quality education without any barriers. As of today, you see there are a lot of barriers in accessing quality education. You can talk about lack of infrastructure, student-to-teacher ratio, and so many barriers that exist in accessing quality education.

“But thanks to AI, all these can be in the past if Nigeria will provide the leadership, and that’s exactly what we are doing as Bildup AI startup.

“So, we have decided to take the lead because we believe that innovation is driven by young people. We don’t want to sit back and wait for the United States or China to invent things for us. We decided to take that bold step to ensure that Nigeria provides the leadership that is needed in this era, and I believe very strongly we stand a chance to lead because we need that more than any other country or continent presently.

“We may have different challenges, but this is an opportunity for us to educate a youthful population that will not just have certificates but will actually have the knowledge to make meaningful contributions to the world. I will say this: we need to sit and have a conversation at this time about what Artificial Intelligence is.”

Aguene dismissed the speculations that AI will make students lazy.

“This has come up a lot whenever this conversation is taking place. I think we need to re-interrogate what it means to be educated because that will help us to answer this. Is education going to a place called school and then getting a certificate, or is it to acquire knowledge in order to solve problems? Because if it is about just going to get a certificate, then access to additional information becomes a threat. But education is about the acquisition of knowledge to solve problems; then access to additional knowledge becomes an asset.

“So, AI is not going to make anybody lazy. It is going to test whatever capacity that we have. I will give you a typical example. We run an AI startup, and every day we are solving problems at the office. Now, if you have someone who is a graduate, maybe you create a dataset of all the information that person gained throughout primary, secondary, and university. If there is a challenge, can that information alone help that person to solve that problem? You will see that it is practically not possible.

“At that point, you need access to additional information. You need to research. So, what AI has done is to be your companion to give you access to additional information. What would ordinarily take you maybe three years, you can do it in a matter of months. That is a groundbreaking innovation that is going to help humanity across every sector, not just technology. Every sector is going to be affected.

“The way I like to describe it is that the human race is on a reset, and we are yet to realize that. What I believe is that it is going to help us. This is the right time for us to ask what education is because it will now make us rethink everything we know from the ground up. And for us to do that, we have to look at the end from the beginning.

“What is the very essence of education? It’s about solving problems. It’s about making meaningful contributions to society. So, memorizing something, answering that, and getting marks will not help. Imagine in a class, you have a teacher to the students, and everything that the teacher is going to say, for example, AI can actually provide that.

“At your fingertips, you have access to that knowledge. So, what is that education? That’s why we need to have this conversation. So, the way we access knowledge, grade students, and say this person is the best in class, we need to review it in the light of what AI is doing so that our focus will now be on solving problems,” he said.

The Technology Expert further stated that AI will empower teachers and help them to accomplish more tasks easily.

He added that special children will also be aided by AI in their studies.

“AI will help and empower teachers. It will give them 80 percent of their time back. A student can accomplish what will take two to three months, that’s a term, in a matter of days, maybe less than two weeks. This is the power of AI.

“Teachers can have insightful feedback about different students even before the teacher enters the class. If a student is struggling with a concept, the teacher can get notifications. This is a new era. Students can learn with the AI, while the teacher can provide guidance and mentorship. So, teachers have a role to play, but the role will change.

“That is the beauty of AI. You can customize and train the AI depending on the students. In this case, you talk about students with autism. AI can definitely help. You train the AI, and it will learn and become better. That’s the reality. AI can help whether it’s a slow learner, students with disabilities, it is going to help.”

Aguene hinted that his company will soon launch a programme called AI Integrated Classroom across the federation to ensure that no child is left out.