Across Africa, a quiet argument says AI is a Silicon Valley toy - a distraction from feeding, healing, and employing our people. It's dangerously wrong. From offline crop-disease apps lifting Kenyan farmers' yields 30%, to AI ultrasounds saving mothers, to 230 million projected digital jobs, AI is already moving the needle. The only unforgivable response would be to look away.

Africa survived colonialism. Survived exploitation. Survived being written out of every major economic revolution in modern history. We cannot afford to let AI be the next one. The race is already underway - infrastructure being built, rules being written - mostly without Africa in the room. That has to change.