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Fools Rush In…
My role was first to convince the politicians and civil service that it was possible, then to design the interventions in various ministries, and finally to roll them out and demonstrate that common people benefited.
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“In Line” to Online
The inside of the Prime Minister’s Office in the capital was just like any other government office. Similar desks and chairs and computers. Similar cars going in and out. Similar trees and flowers adorned the campus. However, three things were absolutely different: security, people and decisions. The security was the highest in the country…
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UN Open Source Week Begins: The Audacity of Hope
I packed my bag the night before UN Open Source Week with the same mixture I always carry to these things: hope, and the memory of every previous hope.
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Did They Burn the Forms?
The funny thing was that all the information I provided to the passport office on my application form already existed with the Ministry of Education. All the information Stitchwel provided already existed with the Ministry of Local Government at the birth registration office. So, why couldn’t they share this information with the passport office?…
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It only gets worse for the poor
Aithorix compares his journey with Stitchwel’s and discovers how unequal the system really is
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“They didn’t push me out. The system did.”
Last episode had Aithorix reminisce his first time at a passport office in Bureaunia as he waited more than eight hours to collect a passport form. This week, he concludes his memories about the entirety of the passport process and how he felt as he left Bureaunia to go for higher studies.
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“Get the hell out,” says conventional wisdom.
Today, Aithorix is Chief AI Advisor at Bureaunia. Yet, there was a time, decades ago, when an experience in his country made him feel utterly hopeless. That experience? Having to stand in a passport queue in Bureaunia. A day he remembers vividly, a day where his then young, impressionable mind realized how a state…
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Is Small AI “real-world” ready?
One morning, Joseph Mwangi almost had a heart attack. His crops were dying. He pulled out his phone and opened CropDoktor, an AI platform built just for farmers to detect plant diseases, and typed his question in his native language.
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The Myth of Small AI
I found it heartening to see not just one but multiple sessions focused on Small AI at the 2026 WB/IMF Spring Meetings in Washington DC last week. For years, the AI narrative was dominated by Big AI with mammoth models like GPT or Gemini or Claude or Grok, boasting trillions of parameters and requiring…