Deep Learning Indaba

Community Showcase: PyData Lagos (@PyDataLagosNG)🇳🇬✨ Building practical AI, growing local talent, and solving real-world problems! PyData Lagos is a thriving data science and machine learning community committed to making AI and data knowledge accessible, practical, and impactful across Nigeria and Africa. Since relaunching in late 2025, the community has grown to nearly 800 members, bringing together students, researchers, and industry professionals through hands-on workshops, study groups, and speaker sessions. One of their standout initiatives is SafeRoute, an open-source project that leverages community-sourced data to map road safety risks for commuters in Lagos, a powerful example of local communities using open technologies to tackle local challenges. Beyond technical learning, PyData Lagos also strengthens the continent's AI ecosystem through cross-continental events exploring the ethical, societal, and technical dimensions of AI. Watch their community showcase to discover how PyData Lagos is empowering people, advancing open source, and building practical AI solutions. Join the conversation from anywhere! Virtual Indaba: Registrations are open to join #DLI2026 virtually! Secure your pass here 👉 deeplearningindaba.com/2026/virtual-i… #DLI2026 #Indaba2026

🪘 Theme announcement 🪘 We are proudly announcing the theme for #DLI2026: 🌾Ìmọ̀ Wa – Our Shared Knowledge🌾 "Ìmọ̀ Wa" is a Yoruba phrase meaning "our knowledge". It speaks to a truth at the heart of the Indaba: knowledge grows through sharing. It lives in our communities, our languages, our histories and the work we create together. Ìmọ̀ Wa invites us to see this shared knowledge as the foundation of sovereign intelligence: Africa's ability to understand its own needs, shape technologies on its own terms and decide how its data, ideas and scientific future are governed. As we gather in Lagos, we will explore what it means to build intelligence that is rooted in who we are, serves our communities and remains in our hands. Our knowledge, shared. Our intelligence, sovereign. See you in Lagos! 🌍✨ #DLI2026 #Indaba2026 #Ìmọ̀Wa

🇳🇬 Community Showcase: Data Science Nigeria (@dsn_ai_network)! Founded in 2016, DSN is raising 1M AI talents across 100+ hubs, reached 8M+ learners via Learn at Home, and won recognition at ICLR + Best Paper at AfricaNLP 2026. Watch how they're building Africa's next AI leaders 👇 #DLI2026 #Indaba2026

⏰ Reminder: Registrations for Virtual Indaba 2026 are still open! Don't miss the chance to connect with the African deep learning and AI community from wherever you are. Join us online for incredible sessions, research presentations, and networking opportunities. Students: Don't forget that we are offering a 50% student discount to support the next generation of AI talent across the continent. 👉 lnkd.in/d2X2pVbG #DLI2026 #indaba2026

Community Showcase: Congo Tech Pamoja (@congotechpamoja) 🇨🇩✨ Bringing the voices of 110 million people into the global conversation! Founded in 2024, Congo Tech Pamoja is on a mission to put the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) firmly on the African AI map. The community focuses on promoting excellence, driving innovation, and making artificial intelligence accessible across French-speaking Africa. To achieve this, they host webinars, conferences, hands-on workshops, and information scholarship programmes designed to sensitise the youth and inspire them to seize tech opportunities. In less than two years, they have built a scientific and educational network where young Congolese talent can collaborate and develop real-world AI projects together. Watch their showcase to see this vibrant community in action! Virtual Indaba: Registrations are open to join #DLI2026 virtually! Secure your pass here 👉 deeplearningindaba.com/2026/virtual-i… #DLI2026 #Indaba2026

Africa is home to less than 1% of the world's data centres. What would it take to change that from within? That is the terrain Kate Kallot @KateKallot works in every day, and she brings it to the Deep Learning Indaba 2026 stage in Lagos this August. Kate is Founder and CEO of @AminiTech, the AI company building sovereign data infrastructure for Africa and the wider Global South. Her work is about letting nations own and build on their own data, compute and models rather than exporting all three and buying the results back. Before Amini she held leadership roles across the chip industry, leading global developer relations and emerging-markets expansion at NVIDIA, shaping the Tiny Machine Learning movement at Arm, and at Intel leading the development of the Neural Compute Stick, the first AI development kit in a USB form factor. She is a hashtag#TIME100 Impact Award honoree and was named one of TIME's 100 Most Influential People in AI, as well as a World Economic Forum Tech Pioneer. She serves as Vice Chair of the ICC Global Environmental and Energy Commission and on EY's Global AI Advisory Council. Her talk, "Sovereign intelligence in practice: enabling both research and deployment", turns on a practical question. What does sovereign intelligence actually look like once you have to build it, run it and deploy it on your own terms? 📌 Invited Talk Monday, 3 August, 12 pm GMT+1 In Lagos and online. Registrations for the Virtual Indaba are still open! 👉 Register: deeplearningindaba.com/2026/virtual-i… #DLI2026 #Indaba2026 #SovereignAI

🔥🪘 The Deep Learning Indaba 2026 annual event is just one month away! We’re excited to welcome over 1,000 passionate researchers and practitioners to Lagos to connect, collaborate, and drive AI innovation across the African continent. Registrations for the Virtual Indaba are still open! Don’t miss your chance to join us online and take part in an incredible lineup of world-class talks, interactive panels, and vibrant community sessions. 👉 Register now: deeplearningindaba.com/2026/virtual-i… Stay tuned! More updates on the official programme and speaker lineup are coming your way soon! ✨ #DLI2026 #Indaba2026

Community Showcase: @TaisNextGen - Tunisian AI Society 🇹🇳✨ What began as a few LinkedIn messages has grown into a global community of Tunisian AI talent driving innovation across continents! TAIS NextGen is building the next generation of AI researchers, engineers, and innovators through collaboration, mentorship, and open-source impact. Today, the community brings together members across 12 countries, with women making up over two-thirds of its network, all united by a shared vision for Tunisia's AI future. Their flagship initiative, SympactAI, empowers participants to tackle real-world challenges through mentored, research-driven projects. From anomaly detection for olive tree diseases to reinforcement learning for fintech, every project is released as open-source. Beyond development, they are core ecosystem builders, having led the poster session at BigTech Africa and contributed thought leadership at the recent Tunisia Digital Summit. Watch their community showcase to see how they are helping shape the future of African AI, one collaboration at a time. #DLI2026 #Indaba2026

Who defines AI, and whose interests does it serve? That is the question Dr Margaret Mitchell @mmitchell_ai will bring to the Deep Learning Indaba 2026 keynote stage in Lagos this August. Dr Mitchell is a Researcher and Chief Ethics Scientist at @huggingface Face, where she leads work on ML data processing, responsible AI development and AI ethics. She was previously at Google where she founded and co-led Google's Ethical AI group to advance foundational AI ethics research and operationalise AI ethics Google-internally. She holds a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Aberdeen and a Master's in Computational Linguistics from the University of Washington. She has published over 100 papers on natural language generation, assistive technology, computer vision, and AI ethics, and holds multiple patents in the areas of AI conversation generation and sentiment classification. She has been recognised for her leadership and ingenuity in public fora such as TIME's Most Influential People in the world, Fortune's Top Innovators, and Lighthouse3's 100 Brilliant Women in AI Ethics. Her work has received awards from Secretary of Defence Ash Carter and the American Foundation for the Blind, and has been implemented by multiple technology companies. She is most known for her work pioneering "Model Cards" for ML model reporting; developing "Seeing AI" to assist blind and low-vision individuals; and developing methods to mitigate unwanted AI biases. In her keynote, she will examine the promise and the reality of the pursuit of AI, interrogating the assumptions and fact-checking common narratives. Her case is that the way we advance AI today is largely controlled by a small set of actors with concentrated interests, and that this risks prioritising power, influence and market position over measurable human benefit. It is a session for anyone who wants AI that answers to communities rather than to incumbents. #DLI2026 #Indaba2026

⚠️ Important notice: scam using the Deep Learning Indaba name It has come to our attention that a fraudulent advertisement is circulating that uses the Deep Learning Indaba's name and logo without authorisation. It offers AI and machine learning "training" with large cash payments and asks recipients to submit personal documents to a private email address. This communication did not come from the Deep Learning Indaba, and we urge everyone not to engage with it. Please do not: • Send any personal documents, government IDs, CVs or academic certificates • Make any payment • Apply through any link or email address connected to that advert Our only legitimate channels are: • Website: deeplearningindaba.com • Applications: baobab.deeplearningindaba.com • Email addresses ending in @deeplearningindaba.com We never correspond through generic Gmail, Yahoo or Outlook accounts, never request sensitive personal documents before a confirmed offer, and never promise cash payments to participants. We are aware this scam appears to be targeting people in difficult circumstances who are sincerely seeking opportunities, which makes it especially harmful. If you have received this advert, please report it to us at info@deeplearningindaba.com (a screenshot helps, without forwarding any links), and help us protect the wider community by sharing this notice.

📢 Virtual Indaba 2026: 50% Student Discount To lower financial barriers for the next generation of researchers, we are offering a 50% registration discount for all students joining us online. If you cannot make it to Lagos, the Virtual Indaba brings the tutorials, keynotes, and community directly to your home or office. Secure your place: deeplearningindaba.com/2026/virtual-i… #DLI2026 #Indaba2026

Community Showcase: Mauritanian Women in Machine Learning 🇲🇷✨ Empowering women, advancing AI, and solving local challenges through innovation! Mauritanian Women in Machine Learning (MWiML) is a growing community dedicated to increasing women's participation in artificial intelligence while building an inclusive and supportive technology ecosystem in Mauritania and beyond. Through webinars, bootcamps, and research initiatives, they are equipping women with core skills in NLP, computer vision, and deep learning. One of their flagship initiatives, Health Voice, beautifully highlights this commitment to social impact. The project aims to bridge language barriers in healthcare by enabling real-time transcription and translation between Mauritania’s national languages and those used by healthcare professionals. Beyond technical training, MWiML continues to champion women in STEM through expert-led mentorship and advocacy that inspires the next generation of leadership. Watch their community showcase to see how they are creating opportunities, amplifying voices, and shaping the future of AI in Mauritania. Join the conversation from anywhere! Virtual Indaba: Registrations are open to join #DLI2026 virtually! Secure your pass here 👉 deeplearningindaba.com/2026/virtual-i… #DLI2026 #Indaba2026

Virtual Indaba 2026: 50% Student Discount Now Available Registrations remain open for the Virtual Indaba 2026. This online format is designed to make the annual event accessible to everyone, regardless of geographic location. To further reduce barriers to participation for the next generation of researchers, we are pleased to offer a 50% discount on registration fees for all students. If you cannot join us in person in Lagos, Nigeria, the Virtual Indaba allows you to engage with the tutorials, keynotes, and community from your home or office. It is through this virtual space that the Indaba expands beyond a single venue into a pan-African dialogue. Secure your place for the Virtual Indaba: deeplearningindaba.com/2026/virtual-i… #DLI2026 #Indaba2026

Continuing our speaker announcements for Deep Learning Indaba 2026 🔥 We're delighted to welcome Prof. Karim Lekadir @KarimLekadir as an invited speaker! Prof. Lekadir is an ICREA Research Professor in the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science at the Universitat de Barcelona @UniBarcelona, where he directs the @BCN_AIM. His work focuses on new data science techniques for trustworthy and ethical artificial intelligence in medicine. He obtained his PhD from Imperial College London and was a postdoctoral researcher at Stanford University. He is the lead author of the FUTURE-AI international guideline for trustworthy AI in healthcare, served as General Chair of the first MICCAI conference held in Africa, and is a co-founder of the African Network for AI in Biomedical Imaging. He coordinates AFRICAI-RI, EDCTP project building a pan-African infrastructure for biomedical imaging, and is PI of the ERC Consolidator Grant AIMIX, which develops AI methods for accessible medical imaging in low-resource settings. His talk is titled "Trustworthy AI Starts with People: Lessons from Healthcare AI in Africa and Beyond." Welcome on board, Prof. Lekadir! Virtual Indaba: Registrations still open: deeplearningindaba.com/2026/virtual-i… #DLI2026

Virtual Indaba 2026: Accessible Learning A reminder that registrations for the Virtual Indaba 2026 are open, and we welcome your participation. The Virtual Indaba ensures that anyone across the continent and beyond can join the conversation. Whether you are unable to travel to Lagos, prefer to participate remotely, or are interested in exploring what the Indaba offers, this format provides full access. It remains a vital part of our gathering, turning the annual event into a truly continental conversation. Register for the Virtual Indaba: deeplearningindaba.com/2026/virtual-i… #DLI2026 #Indaba2026

Community Showcase: Maseno Centre for Applied Artificial Intelligence (MCAAI) @mcaai_msu 🔥 Harnessing AI to solve local challenges and create global impact! Based at Maseno University in Kenya, the Maseno Centre for Applied Artificial Intelligence (MCAAI) is advancing multidisciplinary research that transforms communities through AI, machine learning, and data science. From pioneering work in low-resource machine translation, speech recognition, and AI for Kenyan Sign Language (AI4KSL), to projects like AfriVoices-KE and SureFood, they are building tech that addresses real-world challenges across Africa. 🇰🇪 Their impact goes far beyond the lab. Through mentorship programs, hackathons, and upskilling initiatives, MCAAI is actively nurturing the next generation of AI talent, including hosting IndabaX Kenya last year, which brought together over 350 participants. Their research excellence speaks for itself, with community members earning prestigious accolades like the Google PhD Fellowship and the Allele Williams Award at the Deep Learning Indaba. Watch their community showcase to see how MCAAI is driving community-centred AI innovation from Kenya to the world. Virtual Indaba: Registrations are open to join #DLI2026 virtually! 👉 deeplearningindaba.com/2026/virtual-i… #DLI2026 #Indaba2026

Next in our keynote announcements for #DLI2026, we're excited to welcome Prof. Vukosi Marivate @vukosi to the stage in Lagos, Nigeria! Prof. Marivate is Director of the African Institute of Data Science and Artificial Intelligence (AfriDSAI), the ABSA UP Chair of Data Science and Professor of Computer Science at @UPTuks, where he leads the @DSFSI_Research group. His research sits at the intersection of machine learning, artificial intelligence and natural language processing, with a particular focus on African and other low-resource languages. He co-founded @LelapaAI, the @MasakhaneNLP and the @DeepIndaba. His keynote is titled "What Do Our Benchmarks Actually Measure? Evaluation Challenges for African Language AI" Over the past decade, research on African languages in natural language processing and speech technologies has accelerated. New datasets, multilingual models and collaborative research initiatives have delivered measurable gains across machine translation, automatic speech recognition and language modelling, showing that progress for historically under-resourced languages is both possible and increasingly visible. Yet as the field begins to envision supporting thousands of the world's languages, a critical question emerges. How should progress actually be measured? Many current benchmarks were designed for well-resourced languages and assume standardised text, stable orthographies and abundant labelled data. Applied to African and other Indigenous languages, they often capture only a narrow slice of linguistic reality while privileging what is easiest to measure. This keynote explores the growing gap between advances in language modelling and the methods used to evaluate them, and argues that rethinking evaluation is essential for truly multilingual AI. Moving forward, evaluation frameworks must better reflect linguistic diversity, community priorities and the complex sociotechnical contexts in which these languages are used. Prof. Marivate holds a PhD in Computer Science from Rutgers University, and an MSc and BSc in Electrical Engineering from the University of the Witwatersrand. He was recently honoured with the Order of Mapungubwe (Silver), one of South Africa's highest national awards, for his contributions to artificial intelligence and computer science. He also serves on the @UN Independent Scientific Panel on AI and the African AI Council at Smart Africa. Welcome on board, Prof. Marivate! Virtual Indaba: Registrations still open: deeplearningindaba.com/2026/virtual-i… #DLI2026 #Indaba2026