{"id":49254,"date":"2026-02-06T04:06:06","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T04:06:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/?p=49254"},"modified":"2026-02-06T04:06:06","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T04:06:06","slug":"south-africas-vukosi-marivate-joins-experts-on-united-nations-artificial-intelligence-panel-tech-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/2026\/02\/06\/south-africas-vukosi-marivate-joins-experts-on-united-nations-artificial-intelligence-panel-tech-news\/","title":{"rendered":"South Africa&#8217;s Vukosi Marivate joins global experts on UN artificial intelligence panel"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Africa tv video display -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"3579572842\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\">\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Professor Vukosi Marivate, a prominent computer scientist born in Ga-Rankuwa, Pretoria, has been recommended by the United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Ant\u00f3nio Guterres to join the prestigious Independent International Scientific Panel on Artificial Intelligence (AI).<\/p>\n<p>On 5 February 2026, South Africa\u2019s government congratulated Professor Marivate, who was selected alongside 40 leading experts to assess the real-world impact of AI across global economies.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe panel will be the first global, fully independent scientific body dedicated to closing the AI knowledge gap and assessing the real-world impacts of artificial intelligence across economies and societies.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt will play a critical role in helping the global community distinguish fact from fiction, and science from misinformation, by providing an authoritative, unbiased reference point,\u201d Government Communication and Information System said in a statement.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-marivate-s-vision-for-ai-in-africa\">Marivate\u2019s vision for AI in Africa<\/h2>\n<p>Marivate, 40, is currently the ABSA-UP chair of data science and a professor of Computer Science at the University of Pretoria.<\/p>\n<p>His journey began in Ga-Rankuwa, north-west of Tshwane, where he first encountered a computer at an IBM reading centre in preschool. He later earned his PhD at Rutgers University in New Jersey as a Fulbright scholar after completing degrees at the University of the Witwatersrand.<\/p>\n<p>Throughout his career, Marivate has championed the inclusion of African languages in technology. He is a co-founder of the Masakhane Research Foundation and Lelapa AI, an African startup focused on developing solutions tailored for the continent. His research specifically targets \u201clow-resource\u201d languages like isiZulu, Sepedi and Setswana, ensuring they are represented in the digital age.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-global-expertise-for-the-future\">Global expertise for the future<\/h2>\n<p>The UN General Assembly established the panel to provide authoritative, non-prescriptive assessments on AI\u2019s opportunities and risks. The members, drawn from over 140 countries, include 19 women and 21 men from diverse disciplines, including academia and the private sector.<\/p>\n<p>The recommended members of the panel:<\/p>\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Girmaw Abebe Tadesse (Ethiopia)<\/li>\n<li>Tuka Alhanai (United Arab Emirates)<\/li>\n<li>Jo\u00eblle Barral (France)<\/li>\n<li>Yoshua Bengio (Canada)<\/li>\n<li>Tegawend\u00e9 Bissyand\u00e9 (Burkina Faso)<\/li>\n<li>Loreto Bravo (Chile)<\/li>\n<li>Mark Coeckelbergh (Belgium)<\/li>\n<li>Carlos Coello Coello (Mexico)<\/li>\n<li>Melahat Bilge Demirk\u00f6z (T\u00fcrkiye)<\/li>\n<li>Adji Bousso Dieng (Senegal)<\/li>\n<li>Awa Bousso Dram\u00e9 (Cabo Verde)<\/li>\n<li>Mennatallah El-Assady (Egypt)<\/li>\n<li>Hoda Heidari (Islamic Republic of Iran)<\/li>\n<li>Juho Kim (Republic of Korea)<\/li>\n<li>Anna Korhonen (Finland)<\/li>\n<li>Aleksandra Korolova (Latvia)<\/li>\n<li>Vipin Kumar (United States of America)<\/li>\n<li>Sonia Livingstone (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland)<\/li>\n<li>Qinghua Lu (Australia)<\/li>\n<li>Teresa Ludermir (Brazil)<\/li>\n<li><strong>Vukosi Marivate (South Africa)<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Bilal Mateen (Pakistan)<\/li>\n<li>Yutaka Matsuo (Japan)<\/li>\n<li>Joyce Nakatumba Nabende (Uganda)<\/li>\n<li>Andrei Neznamov (Russian Federation)<\/li>\n<li>Maximilian Nickel (Germany)<\/li>\n<li>Rita Orji (Nigeria)<\/li>\n<li>Rom\u00e1n Or\u00fas (Spain)<\/li>\n<li>Alvitta Ottley (Saint Kitts and Nevis)<\/li>\n<li>Martha Palmer (United States of America)<\/li>\n<li>Johanna Pirker (Austria)<\/li>\n<li>Balaraman Ravindran (India)<\/li>\n<li>Maria Ressa (Philippines)<\/li>\n<li>Lior Rokach (Israel)<\/li>\n<li>Piotr Sankowski (Poland)<\/li>\n<li>Silvio Savarese (Italy)<\/li>\n<li>Bernhard Sch\u00f6lkopf (Germany)<\/li>\n<li>Haitao Song (China)<\/li>\n<li>Leslie Teo (Singapore)<\/li>\n<li>Jian Wang (China)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>The panel is expected to present its inaugural annual report in July 2026 in Geneva. This appointment marks a significant milestone for South African representation in global technology governance, ensuring that African perspectives remain at the forefront of AI advancements.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Africa tv video display -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"3579572842\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\">\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n#South #Africas #Vukosi #Marivate #joins #global #experts #artificial #intelligence #panel<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Professor Vukosi Marivate, a prominent computer scientist born in Ga-Rankuwa, Pretoria, has been recommended by the United Nations (UN) Secretary-General&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":49255,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mzansi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49254"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49254\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49256,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49254\/revisions\/49256"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}