The United States Consulate General, Lagos, in collaboration with Yaba College of Technology (YABATECH), has concluded a one-day intensive training programme on the responsible use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) for over 300 participants, comprising staff, students, and alumni of the institution.
The event aimed to equip attendees with the knowledge and skills to harness AI’s potential responsibly and ethically.
The Rector of YABATECH, Dr Ibraheem Abdul, while declaring the training open, highlighted the initiative’s significance, noting that artificial intelligence has become a defining force in education, governance, business, and everyday life.
He expressed appreciation to the U.S. Consulate for its visionary partnership, which he said, underscored the shared belief that knowledge in emerging fields like AI must be harnessed responsibly to benefit society, drive sustainable development, and open new frontiers of opportunity for Nigerian youth.
The keynote speaker, Omoju Miller, who is the Chief Executive Officer of FIMIO and a globally recognised technology expert, challenged participants to move from being mere consumers of foreign technologies to active creators in the unfolding AI revolution.
She emphasised that Africa, and Nigeria in particular, has a unique opportunity to play a significant role in shaping the future of AI, given its youthful population, talent pool, and growing digital ecosystem.
‘We are in the most profound global revolution yet—the AI revolution. This is our opportunity to be participants, not just consumers’, Miller said, urging young Nigerians to embrace what she described as ‘main actor energy’ in global tech development.
Miller highlighted the availability of open-source AI models, making innovation accessible to young developers and researchers without prohibitive costs.
The training focused on ethics and responsibility, covering key areas such as responsible AI tools and decision-making, ethical applications in teaching and research, cyber safety and data privacy, preventing AI misuse and plagiarism, and exploring career pathways within the AI ecosystem.
Miller warned participants against the misuse of AI in academic work, describing it as counterproductive. ‘Don’t let AI do your homework for you. Use it to teach you, to expand your understanding, to generate practice questions, and to improve your mastery. If you cheat with AI, you are only cheating yourself’, she cautioned.
She also highlighted the risks of bias in AI systems, explaining that algorithms trained on limited or skewed datasets can exclude or misrepresent certain communities.
She called on Nigerian researchers and students to contribute local data, languages, and cultural contexts to global datasets to ensure fair representation.
The event concluded with a call for grassroots innovation within the institution, encouraging students and staff to design AI-driven solutions to challenges within their immediate environment, test them responsibly, and share findings to strengthen global safety frameworks.
