Who pays for African AI Research as Microsoft closes its Nairobi Engineering Hub

Two things happened in Africa’s AI community this week. On 12 October, the AI researcher Nando de Freitas appealed publicly for sponsors, saying that for 10 years “we’ve been raising funds to bring AI to Africa” and South America, and that “this year we are finding it hard to raise money”. The same day, Microsoft staff in Nairobi were reportedly told that the company’s engineering centre there is closing.