China-Africa can usher in AI media revolution

Editor's note: The 7th Forum on China-Africa Media Cooperation convened in Beijing on Aug 20. One of the parallel sessions, "AI Integrated Applications in the Radio Television and Audio-Visual Sector", explored how artificial intelligence and digital technologies are creating new possibilities for China-Africa media cooperation. Below are reflections from four of the speakers, as reported by Li Wei of China Daily.

AI could help Africa find its voice

A young African woman loves to sing, cherishing both her talent and her country. For years, talent like hers was confined by geography, language and the prohibitive costs of reaching a wider audience. However, technology is beginning to change that. With digital platforms, artists who once had only a small audience can make their voice heard far beyond their local communities.

The potential of artificial intelligence in Africa is not just about making existing technologies faster or cheaper. It also offers the opportunity for more people to share their stories, in their own languages, and on their own terms.

This is particularly important in countries such as Benin, where more than 50 languages are spoken. Much of today's digital content is produced in a few dominant languages, creating a less visible digital divide. While people may have access to smartphones or the Internet, the technology often does not speak their language.

AI could change that. It can help produce and translate radio and television programs, educational materials and other forms of public information into local languages at a scale and cost that were previously unimaginable. Instead of relying on expensive, large-scale productions, communities could create content that responds to their own needs and circumstances.

The same technology can also help Africa preserve its rich history. Digital tools can help restore and organize archives, including historical records that might otherwise be lost. This ensures that future generations can connect with their heritage.

But a larger digital public sphere also introduces new risks. When everyone can become a publisher, the question is no longer simply who can speak, but how society can distinguish reliable information from manipulation. Cybersecurity, misinformation and the responsible management of digital platforms will therefore become as important as expanding access to technology itself.

This is where international cooperation can make a difference. Benin's experience shows that cooperation with China should extend beyond the mere transfer of technology. China's expertise in digital education, media platforms and technological applications offers valuable lessons for African countries to adapt to their circumstances. The goal should not be to reproduce another country's model, but to leverage technology to serve local needs.

Africa's technological future should not be measured by the number of AI systems it develops or how quickly it catches up with global technological powers. A more meaningful measure may be whether technology enables more Africans to learn, create, preserve their history and participate in public life.

The AI revolution will be truly inclusive only when it amplifies voices that have too often been left at the margins and empowers them to tell their stories through technology.

Beyond hardware, build human capacity

When a country acquires new technology, the most visible signs of progress are often the easiest to quantify: cameras, broadcasting equipment, digital networks and computers. However, for countries striving to build their media industries, the more important question is how technology can create lasting local capabilities.

The experience of the Central African Republic offers valuable insights. In a country where radio and television are essential channels for public information, educating young people and supporting economic activity, digital technology presents enormous opportunities. China has already supported the country in broadcasting, professional training and exchanges among journalists. Such cooperation can enhance media reach and connect more people with information.

Yet technology alone cannot create a flourishing media industry. The Central African Republic is also working to strengthen its media infrastructure, expand coverage, improve content production and develop a larger pool of trained professionals. But several basic constraints have to be addressed. Sophisticated broadcasting systems need reliable power, connectivity and maintenance systems. A newsroom cannot become digitally capable simply because new computers have been installed.

This is why the most important part of digital cooperation may be the part that is least visible: people.

A camera can be delivered, and a broadcasting network can be built. But the ability to operate a newsroom, produce engaging programs, edit videos, manage digital platforms and develop sustainable media businesses has to be cultivated. Developing local expertise is essential to turning technological cooperation into sustainable development.

This distinction becomes even more important as AI transforms the economics of content production. Social media and AI tools are lowering the cost of producing and distributing audio and video. For young people in the Central African Republic, this could open possibilities that were once reserved for organizations with substantial financial and technical resources. They can now become not merely audiences for digital content, but also its producers.

The significance of this shift extends beyond the media industry. A country capable of producing its own news, educational programs and cultural content has greater capacity to communicate with its citizens and to present its perspective to the outside world. Digital transformation, in this sense, becomes a question of who gets to create and disseminate knowledge.

The next stage of China-Central African Republic cooperation should place greater emphasis on joint capacity-building. Training journalists, developing technical skills and jointly producing audiovisual content could have a more significant impact than adding more hardware. Joint production, in particular, offers a way to turn cooperation from something delivered by one side into something created by both.

That doesn't mean infrastructure is not important. On the contrary, reliable electricity, communications networks and appropriate equipment are essential. But infrastructure should be developed alongside training, knowledge transfer and long-term maintenance. Otherwise, the hardware may outlast the capacity needed to operate it.

This principle applies in other countries as well. Across the developing world, digital transformation is often described as a race to acquire the latest technologies. But technological development is not a shopping list. The real question is whether societies can absorb technology, adapt it to local circumstances and eventually use it to create something of their own.

The success of international digital cooperation should therefore not be measured by what is delivered, but by what endures: the skills acquired, the local industries created, the content produced and the capacity to innovate and develop sustainably in local contexts.

The ultimate goal of cooperation is not merely to increase the use of technology, but to empower people to adapt, innovate and create with it. It is to give people the capacity to make technology their own.

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.

Time for Africa to take tech leapfrog

For much of the past century, the global film industry has been governed by a simple fact: making movies is expensive. Money, talent, technology and distribution have created formidable barriers to entry, allowing only a few Western countries to dominate the industry and shape the narratives that reach global audiences.

AI is beginning to change that equation. For developing countries, it offers something more important than a cheaper way to make films: the chance to bypass an entire industrial model rather than spend decades trying to catch up with it.

There are three propositions to consider. First, AI is breaking down the century-old barriers of the traditional film industry. Second, China has already demonstrated on an industrial scale that AI-generated content can dramatically reduce production costs while accelerating the process. Third, Africa might be uniquely positioned to seize this opportunity, precisely because it is not constrained by the legacy of a mature film industry.

Why have latecomers struggled to compete with Hollywood and other established film industries? The answer lies in four barriers: capital, talent, distribution and industrial infrastructure.

A successful feature film or television series is the result of decades of accumulated expertise, huge financial investment, specialized teams and cross-border distribution networks. Established film powers have spent generations building these systems. For newcomers, replicating them from scratch is costly, time-consuming and, ultimately limiting.

AI changes the starting point. A conventional blockbuster such as Avengers: Endgame required hundreds of people and months of work on visual effects. By contrast, comparable AI-generated material can now be produced by a single creator in roughly an hour, at a computing cost of less than 1,000 yuan ($149), based on the experience of Chinese creators. The significance is not merely that one film can be made more cheaply, but that an entire layer of industrial accumulation can be bypassed.

China's emerging AI film industry offers a glimpse of what that could look like. Production can now be managed through an end-to-end AIGC workflow, covering everything from scripts and storyboards to visual assets, video, music and distribution. This means smaller teams, shorter production cycles and much lower costs. A core team of three to five people can produce a 120-minute AI drama within three days at a computing cost of less than 30,000 yuan. A similar live-action production would typically require months, dozens of professionals and hundreds of thousands — or even millions — of yuan.

Nor is AI limited to short dramas. It is already being applied to films, animation, special effects, advertising, promotional videos and digital characters. In other words, AI is not simply making conventional productions more efficient. It is expanding what can be produced by creators who previously lacked the resources to enter the industry.

This is where Africa may have an unexpected advantage. Africa's greatest asset is cultural abundance: its languages, histories, traditions, landscapes and diverse societies. Global audiences may be increasingly familiar with standardized Hollywood formulas, but stories rooted in the African experience remain dramatically underrepresented on the world stage. For decades, production constraints limited the reach of those stories. AI could remove that constraint.

The technology is highly adaptable. Characters, settings and visual styles can be localized rapidly, allowing established production workflows to be combined with African stories, aesthetics and cultural references. The result could be something more significant than cheaper filmmaking: the creation of a new global content ecosystem in which African creators are not merely consumers of other people's stories, but producers of their own.

For a century, much of the world's cinematic influence has been concentrated in a handful of countries. The opportunity created by AI is not to run faster on the old track, but to build a new one.

That is the real meaning of technological leapfrogging — and Africa has every reason to believe it can be among the leaders of the new race.

The views don't necessarily reflect those of China Daily.