• It is challenging to maximise AI’s benefits for children’s education and growth, while also ensuring their privacy, healthy development, and emotional well-being.
• From privacy concerns and the danger of over-trust to the spread of misinformation and possible psychological effects, AI challenges are many.
• Information collected from AI chatbots, when used for malicious purposes, can enable powerful manipulative tactics to spread misinformation, and polarisation.

Across Africa and the world, artificial intelligence is powering one of the most defining revolution in the history of mankind. In just under two years, Generative AI tools such as ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, and Microsoft’s Copilot are increasingly assuming a central role in the lives of individuals, organisations and governments. AI-powered platforms are rapidly becoming a significant part of our daily lives.

For instance, with tech giants Meta integrating AI chatbots into popular social media communications platforms such as WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram, the technology is more …

• Mastercard Gateway is a global payment platform that offers protection from fraud and simplifies payment acceptance.
• The main forces behind this change are the speed, security, and ease of use provided by digital wallets and mobile money.
• Mobile money services like MTN Mobile Money, Airtel Money, and Kenya’s M-Pesa are becoming to become well-known brands.

Mastercard and Amazon Payment Services have entered a multi-year partnership to digitize payment acceptance across key markets in the Middle East and Africa.

The agreement includes Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, South Africa, and the UAE.

Through the partnership, Amazon Payment Services will integrate Mastercard Gateway, a streamlined solution for payment processing, across 40 markets in the region.

This integration will allow merchants to provide faster, more secure transactions and various payment options for customers.

The collaboration comes as digital payments continue to rise in the region. Amazon Payment Services merchants, including Amazon …

• Ransomware attacks cost the healthcare sector $2.57M, with only 22% of ransomware victims fully recovered in a week or less.
• Organizations with breached backups were twice as likely to pay the ransom to recover encrypted data.
• Insurance providers play a significant role in these ransom payments, contributing to 77% of cases and covering 19% of the total ransom amounts.

Cyber-attacks targeted towards health organisations have increased by 7 per cent in the past year to hit a four-year high since 2021. New findings titled “The State of Ransomware in Healthcare 2024,” by cybersecurity firm Sophos, reveal that healthcare is reporting a rise while other sectors posted a drop.

Of those organizations surveyed, two-thirds or 67 per cent were impacted by ransomware attacks in the past year, up from 60 per cent in 2023.

The rising rate of ransomware attacks against healthcare institutions contrasts with the declining rate of ransomware attacks …

• The UAE Society of Engineers invites innovators to participate in the third edition of the Excellence and Creative Engineering Award.
• It aims to promote the importance of national engineering work.
• The application period will remain open until November 15, 2024.

UAE Engineering Award is inviting innovators across the Middle East nation to showcase their groundbreaking ideas in the highly anticipated third edition of the competition. In a statement, the organizers said UAE’s Excellence and Creative Engineering Award is a unique opportunity to present outstanding work that reflects their commitment to quality and innovation in this field.

The UAE Society of Engineers emphasizes the importance of active participation in such initiatives, which enhance the status of the engineering sector and contribute to its development on both national and international levels.

The Excellence and Creative Engineering Award is the first of its kind in the UAE. It aims to promote the importance …

• AIM Congress 2025 will explore the latest trends and developments shaping global investment, focusing on addressing current and future challenges.
• Key segments of next year’s edition include FDI, Start-ups, global manufacturing, and digital transformation among others.
• HE Al Zeyoudi: “AIM Congress will provide a crucial platform for the international community to come together, devise innovative investment strategies, and build a framework that ensures sustainable and inclusive growth for all.”

Once again, the City of Abu Dhabi in the UAE is gearing up to host the 14th edition of AIM Congress 2025, with planners of the global showpiece projecting to host over 25,000 participants.

In an announcement Wednesday, the Organising Committee of AIM Congress says the 2025 showcase will take place from April 7-9, under the theme “Mapping the Future of Global Investment: The New Wave of a Globalized Investment Landscape – Towards a New Balanced World Structure”.

Taking place at …

• Tiktok holds talks with content creators in Kenya on monetisation following the breach of a June 2024 offer to start making money via the platform.
• In December 2023, TikTok announced plans to launch a subscription model for content in Kenya in June 2024.
• According to the Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2023 survey, Kenya leads the world in TikTok usage.

Kenyan content creators will wait a bit longer for direct monetisation of their content through TikTok, after the video-sharing platform breached an earlier offer to operationalise income-earning initiatives by June this year. In the latest development, the Chinese company revealed that it has just engaged in talks with Kenyan creators, who have been pushing multinational social media companies to find ways to compensate for the content they publish on the platforms.

Tiktok director of government relations & public policy for Sub-Saharan Africa Fortune Sibanda said that Kenyan creators will in …