中國的人工智能正在非洲迅速發展，這應該引起矽谷的擔憂（3/3）

Recently The New York Times reported the following:

(Source: The NYT)

China’s A.I. Is Surging Across Africa. That Should Worry Silicon Valley (3/3)

In African tech hubs, developers are picking China’s cheap, freely available artificial intelligence models over more powerful U.S. ones.

The NYT - By Paul MozurAdam Satariano and Aaron Krolik (Paul Mozur and Adam Satariano reported from Nairobi, Kenya, and Aaron Krolik from New York.)

Aug. 5, 2026

(continued from part 2)

Wake Up Call

In a Nairobi high-rise in June, a top Kenyan civil servant for technology said he was surprised when Anthropic pulled access to Fable, its powerful model, at the Trump administration’s behest.

It was a “wake up call” to the world, said John Tanui, the principal secretary in Kenya’s Ministry of Information, Communications and the Digital Economy. The abrupt move was a warning that relying on U.S. models could pose risks, he said.

A former Huawei employee who once led the Konza Technopolis project, Mr. Tanui said China and the United States had pressed Kenya to pick a side. He intends to take from both.

“We don’t lean on West or East,” he said.

Being in the middle is tricky. Developers are building systems controlled elsewhere, which means the technology can be yanked, altered or re-priced without warning. Some worry about dependence on the United States. Others do not trust China.

Mr. Budhabhatti of Craft Silicon said he was considering Huawei’s offer of generous subsidies, but was also cautious. Many of his customers are international banks that could demand their software not use Chinese hardware.

Chinese models, too, have not always been reliable. Shikoh Gitau, the founder of the Nairobi start-up Qhala, recalled when DeepSeek went dark in China before the country’s college entrance exams in 2024. It was to deter cheating, but it also disrupted African businesses like hers. Now American models could vanish because of a White House decision.

“At least with China’s models, I can download it on my computer and run it,” she said.

Others have been burned by A.I. politics. Mr. Mwebaze’s Ugandan chatbot service, Sunflower, ran into trouble when a researcher at China Media Project, an independent media research group, asked it about China. Sunflower described China as a democracy and sidestepped questions about the country’s economic and environmental impacts in Uganda.

Chinese state media praised Sunflower, and Huawei contacted Mr. Mwebaze about using its cloud services.

Mr. Mwebaze, whose nonprofit organization, Sunbird AI, is dedicated to A.I. for social good, was unnerved by the experience. He is now using Google’s open-source model, Gemma, to create a product aimed at smartphone users.

“We need to make sure we’re not on the wrong side of geopolitics,” he said.

America Strikes Back

For all of China’s momentum, much of the A.I. money in Kenya still flows to U.S. companies.

Everyday users are on U.S. systems like ChatGPT and Claude. One 2025 survey found that 42 percent of Kenya’s 23 million internet users had used ChatGPT in the previous month, among the highest rate in the world.

Even Chinese models earn Americans money. Kenyan companies often run Chinese open-source models on cloud services from Amazon and Microsoft, so the U.S. giants make money from their data centers that deliver the technology to customers.

The U.S. advantage was clear in a concrete building in Nairobi’s industrial district, where binders of paper purchase orders lined dark offices for Chandaria Industries, one of Kenya’s largest makers of toilet paper, soap and home goods.

For decades, orders arrived from supermarkets by email or on paper, and clerks keyed them in line by line. An order could take hours to process.

Chandaria recently hired Sanifu, a Kenyan start-up that uses A.I. to streamline business processes, for help. Sanifu uses OpenAI’s models for precision and reliability.

Sanifu’s digital system based on those U.S. models has transformed Chandaria. “Where an order took about two hours to process, that now takes less than 10 minutes,” said Neer Chandaria, who helps run the family firm. Four clerks who once typed in orders now audit the A.I.’s work.

But Sanifu is being courted too. On LinkedIn this year, a Singaporean employee of the Chinese internet firm ByteDance offered Sanifu’s founders access to its A.I. model.

ByteDance’s model was not accurate enough, but the courtship made an impression, said Bernard Momanyi Nyagaka, a co-founder of Sanifu. Nothing like it comes from the American labs.

And Chinese models keep improving, Mr. Nyagaka said.

“If you look at how fast they’re catching up with the American models, it’s really, really fast,” he said.

Translation

中國的人工智能正在非洲迅速發展，這應該引起矽谷的擔憂（3/3）

在非洲的科技中心，開發者們正在選擇中國廉價且免費的人工智能模型，而不是功能更強大的美國模型

（接續第二部分）

警醒

今年6月，在內羅比的一棟高層建築裡，一位肯亞高級技術公務員表示，他對Anthropic公司應朗特普政府的要求撤回其強大的人工智能模式Fable的存取權限感到驚訝。

肯亞資訊、通訊和數位經濟部常務秘書John Tanui表示，這給世界一個「警醒」。他說，這項突然舉動是在警告人們，依賴美國模型可能會帶來風險。

曾任華為員工、並領導Konza Technopoli科技城計劃的Tanui先生表示，中國和美國都曾施壓肯亞選邊站隊。他打算兼顧雙方。

他說「我們不偏袒西方，也不偏袒東方」。

居於中立位置並非易事。開發者正在建立由其他國家控制的系統，這意味著技術可能在毫無預警的情況下被撤回、修改或重新定價。有些人擔心過度依賴美國，而有些人則不信任中國。

Craft Silicon公司的Budhabhatti先生表示，他正在考慮華為提供的豐厚補貼，但也保持謹慎。他的許多客戶都是國際銀行，這些銀行可能會要求其軟件不得使用在中國的硬件。

此外，中國模式也並非總是可靠。內羅比初創公司Qhala的創辦人Shikoh Gitau回憶起，在2024年中國高考前夕，DeepSeek在中國停止營運。此舉旨在防止作弊，但也擾亂了像她這樣的非洲企業。如今，由於白宮的一項決定，美國的人工智能模型可能就會消失。

她說:「至少我可以下載中國的型號到電腦上運行」。

其他人則因人工智能政治而蒙受損失。Mwebaze先生的叫做「向日葵」（Sunflower）的烏干達 聊天機器人服務就遇到了麻煩。當時，獨立媒體研究機構「中國傳媒計劃」（China Media Project）的一位研究員向「向日葵」詢問了有關中國的問題。 「向日葵」將中國描述為一個民主國家，並迴避了有關中國對烏干達經濟和環境影響的問題。

中國官方媒體對「向日葵」大加讚揚，華為也聯繫了Mwebaze先生，希望他使用其雲端服務。

Mwebaze先生的非營利組織「太陽鳥人工智能」（Sunbird AI）致力於利用人工智能造福社會，這次經歷讓他感到不安。他現在正在使用Google的開源模型Gemma開發一款面向智能型手機用戶的產品。

他說:「我們需要確保自己不會站在地緣政治的錯誤一邊」。

美國反擊

儘管中國在人工智領域勢頭強勁，但肯亞的大部分人工智能資金仍流向美國公司。

肯亞的一般用戶都在使用ChatGPT和Claude等美國系統。一項2025年的調查發現，肯亞2,300萬網路用戶中有42%的人在上個月使用過ChatGPT，這比例位居世界前列。

即使是中國的人工智能模型也賺美國錢。肯亞公司經常在亞馬遜和微軟的雲端服務上運行中國的開源模型，這些美國巨頭可以從其數據中心負責向客戶提供技術服務中獲利。

在內羅比工業區的一棟混凝土建築裡，美國的優勢顯而易見。肯亞最大的衛生紙、肥皂和家居用品生產商之一 - 錢德里亞工業公司（Chandaria Industries）昏暗的辦公室裡，一疊疊紙質採購訂單整齊地擺放著。

幾十年來，超市的訂單都是透過電子郵件或紙本形式送達，店員需要逐行輸入。處理一份訂單可能需要幾個小時。

Chandaria 最近聘請了肯亞新創公司 Sanifu 來協助其業務流程優化。 Sanifu 利用人工智能技術簡化業務流程，並使用 OpenAI 的模型來確保精準性和可靠性。

Sanifu 基於這些美國模型的數位化系統徹底改變了 Chandaria 的營運模式。協助管理家族企業的 Neer Chandaria 說: 「以前處理訂單需要大約兩個小時，現在不到 10 分鐘就能完成」。過去負責輸入訂單的四名職員現在負責審核人工智能的處理結果。

Sanifu 也受到了其他公司的青睞。今年，一位來自中國網絡公司字節跳動的新加坡員工在 LinkedIn 上向 Sanifu 的創辦人提供了其人工智能模式的使用權限。

Sanifu 的共同創辦人 Bernard Momanyi Nyagaka 表示，字節跳動的模型雖然不夠精確，但這次青睞卻給他們留下了深刻的印象。美國實驗室從未有類似的產品。

Nyagaka 先生也表示，中國的模型也在不斷改進。

他說:「如果你看看他們追趕美國模型的速度，你會發現是真的非常非常快」。

              So, the A.I. model from the Chinese internet giant Alibaba handles Uganda’s dozens of languages better than anything from Meta or Google. It is inexpensive, and could be customized. In Kenya, entrepreneurs are using the models to streamline legal and business services. China and the United States have pressed Kenya to pick a side.  Some users worry about dependence on the United States. Others do not trust China. Apparently, Africa is a place where China and the US will continue fighting for the AI market.