In this blog, Data2X unpacks key insights from Episode 5 of AI: Alternative Intelligence, a podcast from Data2X, featuring Rebecca Ryakitimbo. Listen to or watch the full conversation on Spotify or YouTube.
Equity in artificial intelligence is often pursued through large institutions and systems: governments that set policy and regulation, tech companies that shape the market, and multilateral donors that fund the development of new tools. Much of the global AI discourse centers on these actors. But this episode of AI – Alternative Intelligence highlights a perspective that is truly community-led. African technologist and researcher Rebecca Ryakitimbo shares efforts across the continent to strengthen local connectivity, equip women with technical AI skills, and address the environmental impacts of expanding AI infrastructure. These initiatives exemplify the “alternative” view this podcast seeks to surface—showing how technology innovation can meet community needs while improving the human condition.
Community-Centered Connectivity and AI Infrastructure
Ryakitimbo’s work focuses on community-centered connectivity, an approach that places ownership and decision-making directly in the hands of local communities. Rather than relying on commercial internet service providers—whose business models often prioritize urban areas with higher profit potential—community networks are built “by the community, for the community, and with the community.”
In this model, ownership is central: communities determine the infrastructure they need, the business models that sustain it, and the purposes it serves. Many rural and peri-urban areas remain underserved by mainstream providers, and community networks fill this gap with models ranging from cooperatives to locally defined voucher systems. A notable example is South Africa’s VNET, where residents exchange recyclable materials for internet connectivity—an approach that expands access while reinforcing community participation.
For Ryakitimbo, this infrastructure is essential for equitable AI. Communities can only benefit from AI tools if the foundations—affordable connectivity, inclusive design, and local control—are grounded in their realities rather than external assumptions.
The African Women’s School of AI
Ryakitimbo is also the founder of the African Women’s School of AI, an initiative addressing the deep gender gaps in technical AI development. While global discussions on AI bias often focus on missing or skewed datasets, Ryakitimbo highlights another gap: the lack of African women designing and researching AI systems.
The school trains women across Africa—from beginners to aspiring technologists—to develop, evaluate, and research AI models grounded in their lived experience. The first cohort drew over 160 applicants, with 25 participants and 20 graduates. The program combines technical training, mentorship, and opportunities to showcase work during the Gendering AI Conference in late August.
Graduates leave with functioning models, the skills to identify and correct gender bias in AI systems, and the confidence to participate in both policy and technical spaces. The school’s long-term vision includes project incubation, access to funding, and a continent-wide network that highlights the growing community of African women technologists.
AI and Climate Impacts
Ryakitimbo also brings an environmental lens to AI, drawing from her background as a conservationist. She underscores the complex climate impacts of AI infrastructure—from the energy demands of data centers to the extractive processes required to build the batteries and hardware that power them.
She warns that the lifecycle of AI infrastructure—from resource extraction to e-waste—creates environmental and social consequences that must be considered in any responsible technology agenda. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, for example, she notes that energy resources often serve mining operations more than households, and data centers’ expansion compounds these inequities by consuming large amounts of power, water, and land. Mining for minerals like lithium, copper, and cobalt also generates environmental degradation, pollution, and dangerous working conditions for artisanal miners.
Together, Rebecca’s work illustrates how communities, women technologists, and environmental advocates across Africa are shaping an approach to AI that is grounded in equity and local agency. Their efforts demonstrate that the future of AI can be built from the ground up—reflecting community priorities, sustainable practices, and inclusive innovation.