China-Africa can usher in AI media revolution

When everyone can create, trust matters more

For much of modern history, publishing required an institution. A newspaper needed a printing press; a television station needed cameras, studios and transmission needed networks; a broadcaster needed a frequency; and a publisher needed a distribution system.

That world is rapidly changing. Today, a smartphone can be a camera, a radio station, a television studio and a publishing house all at once. Social media can transform an ordinary person into a global broadcaster. AI is propelling that transformation further, making it possible to produce text, images, audio and video with a speed and sophistication that once required a professional newsroom.

This may be one of the most consequential changes in media history. It gives millions of people a new ability to speak for themselves. But it also poses a challenge that is hard to ignore: When everyone can produce information, how do we determine what to trust?

AI can help a journalist produce an audiovisual report in minutes. It can also generate images of events that never happened, imitate voices of people who never spoke and create videos that appear to show something that never occurred. Social media can spread knowledge to millions of people, but the same networks can also amplify rumors, manipulation and disinformation at extraordinary speed.

The challenge, therefore, is not to choose between technological progress and caution. It is to build the institutions, professional standards and public literacy that enable societies to benefit from new technologies without being overwhelmed by their abuse.

This is reshaping media regulation. In the age of radio and television, regulators focused primarily on broadcasters: who could operate, what could be transmitted and the standards to be followed. The digital world is much harder to contain. When almost anyone can publish and algorithms can distribute content to millions, regulation must increasingly address the information environment itself.

This requires more than rules. It requires people who understand technology, journalism and ethics simultaneously. Young people, in particular, need the ability to recognize manipulated information, understand how digital platforms shape what they see and question content that appears convincing simply because it looks real. Media literacy is no longer a specialist skill, but a fundamental aspect of citizenship.

For African countries, there is another dimension to this challenge. The question is not only whether Africans can consume information, but who gets to produce the images and narratives through which Africa is understood.

The ability to produce and distribute their own content offers African countries the opportunity to introduce more diverse perspectives into the global information space. Television programs, documentaries, films and digital media produced by African journalists and creators can offer perspectives that are difficult to capture from afar. The goal should not be to replace one dominant narrative with another, but to create a more plural information space where different societies can speak for themselves and listen to one another.

This is one area where China-Africa media cooperation can take on a broader meaning. Cooperation should go beyond technology and equipment to include professional exchanges, joint research, training and, above all, co-production. Chinese and African media organizations could collaborate on documentaries, television programs, journalist exchanges and mechanisms for verifying digital content. Such projects would not merely increase the volume of information but would also help build mutual understanding.

China's expertise in applying AI and digital technologies to the audiovisual sector, as well as its efforts in cybersecurity and digital media, offers useful areas for cooperation. But the objective should not be to import a ready-made model. The goal is to develop approaches that reflect local realities while allowing countries to learn from one another.

Africa's young population adds urgency to this effort. A young person with a smartphone and an internet connection can now acquire skills, create a documentary, build an audience or start a digital enterprise with resources that were once not enough. The task is to make sure that these new tools create producers and creators rather than merely larger audiences.

The larger question facing the media industry is therefore no longer who has access to information, but who has the ability to create it, verify it and give it meaning.

AI may make information abundant, production faster and communication cheaper. But it cannot decide what deserves to be believed. That remains a human responsibility — and perhaps the most important one the digital age has given us.

Ibrahim Manzo Diallo is the president of the National Communications Observatory, Niger's media regulatory authority.