Former minister of communications and digital economy Isa Pantami has knocked his successor Bosun Tijani over the relaunch of the National Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics (NCAIR).
The centre is a special-purpose vehicle created to promote research and development on emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), robotics and UAV, internet of things (IoT) and their practical application in areas of Nigerian national interest.
On April 19, Mr Tijani announced the relaunch of the NCAIR with the support of global tech company, Cisco, adding that the capacity of the centre had been improved.
Prof Pantami, however, countered on X, saying his “legacy” was being “claimed”.
“The National Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics has been built and commissioned in November 2020, almost 4 years ago.
“The first of its kind in Africa. It has been very effective, and thousands of Nigerians have been trained and trained. Legacy is achieved, not claimed,” the former minister wrote.
Providing more information on the relaunch, Tijani wrote on X on Saturday that the goal of President Bola Tinubu’s administration is to strengthen the capacity of NCAIR to conduct artificial intelligence research, empower local researchers and startups, and strengthen the application of AI in government.
He wrote, “To achieve these, here are some new initiatives we’ve introduced to support this relaunch:
“NCAIR now has access to over 2500 virtual CPUs for use by the Nigeria AI Collective. NCAIR is now connected to 1 petabyte of storage at GBB.
“NCAIR will manage the new computing infrastructure for projects of national interest and academic research. There is now adedicated lab at NCAIR for State and enterprise AI research projects.
“NCAIR will allow AI hubs and pods across the country connect remotely to the new computing infrastructure.
“In addition, NCAIR will now report and academically publish on all projects carried out at the institution.”
