AI Sandboxes Co-creation Lab Report

The inaugural Global AI Summit on Africa held in Kigali on April 3-4, 2025, brought together high-level policymakers, AI experts, thought leaders, industry pioneers, and researchers from across Africa and beyond. This summit explored the transformative AI opportunity for Africa and outlined practical steps needed to realize this potential.

Building momentum before the Summit, the Datasphere Initiative (DI) kicked off its AI Sandboxes Co-creation Lab Series with a focused Africa session on April 2nd. This new initiative creates a collaborative environment where diverse stakeholders can co-design and refine responsible sandbox models that can foster AI innovation while ensuring appropriate safeguards.

Hosted at Westerwelle Startup Haus Kigali, as a side-event of the Global AI Summit on Africa, the Lab convened 17 participants representing government regulators, private sector leaders, academics, and development organizations. The three-hour session drew on insights from DI’s latest research publications: the Africa Sandboxes Outlook and the Sandboxes for AI report. Participants explored areas where sandboxes can have the greatest impact in shaping AI development in Africa, with conversations spanning data and infrastructure, skills and capacity, regulation and governance frameworks, and data governance and rights.