- The strategic partnership between Cassava Technologies and Zindi aims to promote AI innovation for local talent by leveraging GPU-powered resources to solve unique African challenges.
- Collaboration is poised to explore opportunities for both entities to leverage each other’s platforms, ecosystems and communities to expand reach, growth and impact.
- Part of the partnership will include the launch of a dedicated AI challenge aimed at revealing emerging talent and shocking innovation.
The pace of AI innovation in Africa is being supported in a timely manner, along with two companies, Cassava Technologies and Zindi, a platform that integrates data scientists across the continent, agreeing to partners to accelerate the ingestion of new technologies.
Understanding the Memorandum (MOU), two companies agreed to speed up the delivery of GPU-AS-AS-AS-POWERED applications.
This move will allow Cassava Technologies to provide Zindi access to the advanced GPUAAS platform infrastructure, allowing African data scientists to develop innovative AI models and tools.
According to the web hosting service platform Liquid Web, service as a GPU (GPU)gpuaas) is a cloud-based product that ensures that users have on-demand access to powerful graphics processing units (GPUs). Rather than investing and maintaining their own GPU hardware, users can rent the computing power they need from their cloud providers and scale it up and down as needed.
This flexible model allows businesses and individuals to perform rigorous tasks, including AI training, deep learning, and other high-performance computing applications, except for the critical upfront costs and maintenance burdens of traditional on-premises infrastructure.
In the Cassava Technologies and Zindi deployment, the latter will guide a vibrant community of over 50,000 data scientists, manipulating a wide range of information resources to develop, test and accelerate the growth of AI innovation tools tailored to local challenges. Zindi helps data practitioners at all levels learn, grow and access professional opportunities while building real-world solutions for global organizations.
On that side, through business units such as Cassava AI, Liquid Intelligent Technologies, Liquid C2, Africa Data Centers and Sasai Fintech, Cassava Technologies provides customers’ products and services in 94 countries.
Cassava Technologies, the digital growth of Zindi Forge Alliance for Africa
Partnerships merge Cassava Technology‘A sophisticated digital infrastructure with Zindi’s mission to grow the African AI talent pool by hosting data science competition and challenges. The collaboration is poised to explore opportunities for both entities to leverage each other’s platforms, ecosystems and communities to expand reach, growth and impact.
“To grow and thrive for the African AI ecosystem, providing platforms and resources to continental developers and startups is essential,” said Hardy Pemhiwa, president and group CEO of Cassava Technologies. “Combining the advanced GPU capabilities of the data center with Zindi’s innovative data science platform creates a strong foundation for digital advancement. Cassava is proud to support local stakeholders in developing digital solutions for Africa’s most pressing issues.”
Known as Africa’s pioneering AI challenge platform, Zindi will work with private companies, governments and NGOs to develop datasets and AI challenges aimed at solving real-world problems, from agriculture and healthcare to fundraising and education. The platform helps local AI builders be exposed to employment opportunities and funding while still providing access to curated challenges and data.
Strengthen talent and promote innovation
Zindi CEO and co-founder Celina Lee praised the potential collaboration to redefine AI innovation on the continent. “Zindi is excited to partner with Cassava Technologies to enhance its African dataset, address local issues with local development solutions, and provide more African AI builders with access to the resources they need to succeed,” she said.
Lee added that a central part of the partnership will include launching a dedicated AI challenge aimed at revealing emerging talent and shocking innovation. “Helping in launching a challenge aimed at fostering AI talent in Africa will not only expose entrepreneurs and innovative solutions, but also help them build new skills and create job opportunities.”
Investing in the future of AI in Africa
This partnership is also in line with Cassava’s broader ambitions for the African digital economy. The company recently announced plans to launch an AI business in 2024. This is fixed by Africa’s first AI factory. This is an initiative coordinated to boost local innovation, promote economic inclusion and position Africa as a global player in responsible AI development.
By signing this MOU, Cassava and Zindi are not only building a pipeline of next-generation African AI professionals, but also laying the foundation for a sustainable and inclusive AI ecosystem.
This collaboration serves as a test case in building the capabilities to shape Africa’s digital future through innovation, investment and partnerships that guide local talent to the forefront of technological advancements.
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