Guy Berger

How do you say something different to what an AI service would? One way is to use AI-generated images. Specifically, rock art style African animals to convey a message to the SADC’s forum of Election Management Bodies (EMBs), for their AGM in eSwatini in December. commspolicy.africa?page_id=134

ELECTIONS: ADOPT AI OR ADAPT TO AI? What’s an African election management body (EMB) to do? You already got to defend your professionalism against political pressures.  And to run your elections on a…... ELECTIONS: ADOPT AI OR ADAPT TO AI? What’s an African election management body (EMB) to do? You already got to defend your professionalism against political pressures.  And to run your elections on a ...

Move slow... and move fast. That's the advice I gave to Election Management Bodies in southern Africa at their AGM this week. Concretely, it means a hardnosed calculation of costs and benefits of AI adoption - and the importance of AI adaptation www.linkedin.com/posts/guy-be...

Generative AI - how does it impact prospects for information as a public good? Generative AI companies aren’t exactly making things don’t look good for the information ecosystem. Courtesy of them… | ... Generative AI - how does it impact prospects for information as a public good? Generative AI companies aren’t exactly making things don’t look good for the information ecosystem. Courtesy of them, we...

Tomorrow Tuesday, a webinar on prospects for information as a public good - in the face of Generative AI. Along with the idea of Re-generating AI. Work within the system, or outside of it? We'll debate this as part of the International Panel on Social Progress www.linkedin.com/posts/guy-be...

African media must follow the money and treat AI as a story about power, not tech AI systems are reshaping Africa’s relationship with the global economy, determining whether the continent remains locked into extractive relationships or develops genuine technological sovereignty.

"AI systems are reshaping Africa’s relationship with the global economy, determining whether the continent remains locked into extractive relationships or develops genuine technological sovereignty." And journalists are missing this story. www.dailymaverick.co.za/opinionista/...

Perplexity is using stealth, undeclared crawlers to evade website no-crawl directives Perplexity is repeatedly modifying their user agent and changing IPs and ASNs to hide their crawling activity, in direct conflict with explicit no-crawl preferences expressed by websites.

this is pretty shitty blog.cloudflare.com/perplexity-i...

AI is not Africa’s savior: Avoiding technosolutionism in digital development | Brookings Chinasa T. Okolo discusses how Africa can ensure AI progress serves the contitnent's broader goals of social and economic empowerment.

My new piece, “AI is Not Africa’s Savior: Avoiding Technosolutionism in Digital Development,” is published on @brookings.edu!

I reflect on the need to put the lived experiences and needs of African communities over AI hype, which is becoming prominent.

www.brookings.edu/articles/ai-...

Under Siege From Trump and Musk, a Top Liberal Group Falls Into Crisis

Between Musk & the Trump administration, Media Matters has been squeezed to the brink. In settlement discussions, lawyers for X demanded the organization hand over all its cash and shut down — all because MM reported ads appeared on X next to antisemitic content. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/25/u...

A new policy brief gives a little-heard perspective on AI. | Guy Berger A new policy brief gives a little-heard perspective on AI. Informed by African interests in the 2025 processes of the G20, the authors signal potent connections and problems within the international A...

A new policy brief gives a little-heard perspective on AI. Informed by African interests in the 2025 processes of the G20, the authors signal potent connections and problems within the international AI tech stack www.linkedin.com/posts/guy-be...

A call for the G20 to come out in support of payment by AI companies for scraping news websites: media20.org/wp-content/u...

Africa's Continental AI Strategy now has an implementation plan. The African Alliance for Access to Data (I'm convenor), urges the plan to reference: the relevance of Right to Information systems, Open Science & work towards Guidelines on access to data. dataalliance.africa/alliance-hig...

M20 policy brief: Information Integrity - Media20

Can media get any mileage with the concept of "information integrity" and the 2025 agenda of the G20 countries? South African editors see possibilities media20.org/2025/05/16/m...

The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights has published its… | Guy Berger The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights has published its Draft Study on Human and Peoples’ Rights and Artificial Intelligence (AI), Robotics, and Other New and Emerging Technologies in Af...

Four categories of human rights are recognised by the African Union's draft study of AI, making for unique reading. But missing is access to data as part of the right to information as concerns digital dynamics. www.linkedin.com/feed/update/...

You've heard it's World Press Freedom Day, I hope. Needed more than ever. But where did it originate? With African journalists in 1991. You can see the story here: action-namibia.org/wp-content/u...

World Press Freedom Day WORLD PRESS FREEDOM DAY 03 May 2025

achpr.au.int/en/news/pres...

On World Press Freedom Day, the ACHPR encourages "the media profession to make ethical use of AI systems in their operations and to be a watchdog that reports on the societal risks as well as opportunities of AI."

*A new report gives insight into data and African… | Guy Berger *A new report gives insight into data and African elections* Digitalisation in Africa is very uneven, and the datafication of democratic processes follows the same pattern. This is the picture emergin...

Just published this co-authored report "Data deficits and democratic processes: The under-explored role of data in African elections". Find link and a summary of key points at www.linkedin.com/posts/guy-be...

Resolution on developing Guidelines to assist States monitor technology companies in respect of their duty to maintain information integrity through independent fact checking - ACHPR/Res.630 (LXXXII) ... The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (the Commission) meeting at its 82nd Ordinary Session, held virtually from 25 February to 11 March 2025:

The African Union notes "with deep concern the recent regress by technology companies with regard to information integrity ..." & calls for "developing guidelines to ensure a public interest element for all platforms operating in Africa" achpr.au.int/en/adopted-r...
achpr.au.int/en/adopted-r...

Forthcoming report on data policy systems for democratic processes Forthcoming research for the Advancing the Governance of Data for Development in Africa project shows five challenges regarding data access in African elections. Selected findings were shared in Decem...

Lots to do with data! This research uncovers where African elections are heading in terms of stakeholder use of data. Which group will get on top of the game first - Electoral commissions, political parties, researchers, FIMI actors? researchictafrica.net/2025/01/23/f...

Departing the New York Times I left to stay true to my byline

I wrote for The Contrarian about my decision to leave the New York Times contrarian.substack.com/p/departing-...

Excerpt from Kentridge clip on Mayakovsky

2016, Kentridge and colleagues created the Centre for the less good idea... So the periphery comes into centre

Kentridge recalls getting Mayakovsky's plays, while a student, which still today conveys energy and creativity to him as a reader

Suspension of U.S. media aid: EFJ calls for mobilisation of European donors The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), one of the largest official aid agencies in the world, has been instructed to stop projects ...

Suspension of U.S. media aid: the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) calls for mobilisation of European donors.

europeanjournalists.org/blog/2025/01...

3 Palestinian journalists on covering the war in Gaza — and surviving it | CBC News As foreign media members were not allowed into the Gaza Strip, the responsibility for reporting fell on the shoulders of local journalists who shot footage of their neighbours and sometimes their own ...

The Israeli authorities did not allow foreign journalists' access to Gaza, except embedded with the IDF, and at the same time, lambasted Gaza-trapped Palestinian journalists as biased or "militants". The news impasse must cease, say press freedom groups.
www.cbc.ca/news/world/j...

Kentridge Studio William Kentridge (born Johannesburg, South Africa, 1955) is internationally acclaimed for his drawings, films, theatre and opera productions.

What will the artist William Kentridge have to say in his lecture at UCT Summer School, coming up shortly? Title: To Cross One More Sea. Perhaps that we always hope there is only one more to go. www.kentridge.studio/mhome/

Guy Berger on LinkedIn: Listening now to Courtney Radsch, PhD introduce live the report of the… Listening now to Courtney Radsch, PhD introduce live the report of the International Observatory on Information and Democracy. The report has a promising…

The difference between censorship and content moderation? It's a question of whether international human rights standards govern limitations on expression
www.linkedin.com/posts/guy-be...

And let's not exempt the actors running the companies that both allow and often automatically boost toxic content...

Careful of a strawman being set up in regard to arguing that 'Laurie Clarke dismantles lazy "bad actors" framing'. Twas not innocents who claimed immigrants were eating pets (and nor were many xenophobes believing and amplifying this, themselves babes-in-the-woods...

The article reads: "In 26 days around the election, Musk fired off 3,870 posts that received more than 33 billion views". What affordances could x.AI (or the grok app) provide for deliberate weaponisation?

Musk’s influence on X eclipses all members of the incoming Congress, combined The tech billionaire’s X account blasts his political messages to an audience far bigger than Trump reaches on the platform, data analysis by The Post shows.

This #Wapo investigation shows the impact how Musk used X to get 200m followers for political influence. What was a platform is now a weapon. Might we see similar instrumentalisation on X.ai ? www.washingtonpost.com/business/int...

At Politikens Boghal in Copenhagen, I asked for Marietje Schaake's book "The Tech Coup". Sold out. Likewise at their sister shop. If there's a sequel - suggested title: "Tech *Capture* (of the US state)" - maybe one could fund a copy and dig into the post-election scenario. Coup to capture, right?