Illegal Immigration and Applied AI
ROMAN MAZUR*
Data does not change reality of people living with poverty, data does not create SDG8 jobs, data does not improve democracy but data shows a light at the end of the tunnel we have to move towards all the time: to change, to create, to improve. 2030 coming soon — the year of a huge challenge of our times — SDGs. But also thousands of people run away from the South to the North, from the East to the West. Our world needs an urgent update. Our world needs applied AI — safe and ethical one.
When I think about history of the World Institute of Safe and Ethical Artificial Intelligence, North America comes to my mind first. I used to rest over there a few years ago. I hardly rest when I rest, so the core of {WIseAI} started in Mexico that time. The project with codename “MimiKazi”, that is AI-supported marketplace we are building to boost SDG8 self-employment in very densely populated areas of developing and emerging countries, evolved out of something what unexpectedly happened to me in North America.
One day an old man appeared on my resort beach with his wheelbarrel full of fresh coconuts. It was the first time ever I tried coconut pulp with chilli powder. I had no money on me but he persuaded me to pay later. I agreed, because I saw that life was a bit hard to him. I started to eat and watch him preparing another coconut for me. I noticed how he looked at my Swatch® I was usually taking abroad that time. The taste of really fresh coconut with chilli powder was so unique to me that I decided to give that watch to that friendly man. His happiness was so big that I can feel it very well even now.
Next day I came to the same place at the same time. I had money on me and I waited patiently about one hour to take two more coconuts with chilli. He didn’t come at all. I was surprised a bit. I started to ask the resort staff about that man - why he’s not coming. They told me that he appears only from time to time and you never know when he comes. I thought he could be afraid of me changing my mind about the watch but they told me too, he is the only person who works in his relatively big family (and he really has to look for customers not only among tourists usually afraid of eating beach-made food).
What surprised me even more was the fact that nobody knew how to contact him to order his coconuts. I saw him using some simple Android® phone, so I thought people can have his number. Nobody had it in fact, even though they knew about good quality of his coconuts. Till the end of my stay in Mexico I was coming at the same time to the same place, with hope to meet that poor man and to buy his unique coconuts. We never met again. All the flight back home I was analysing what happened to me, to him and what can we do to improve future relations between self-employed hawkers and their customers.
It shouldn’t go like that anymore: when a hawker wants to sell but buyer can’t buy, because they don’t see each other. It’s 21st century! To change it, my researchers did quite big research in Africa in 2018 and 2019. What we discovered is not only the number of self-employed hawkers and street vendors but also their tech command. We know that governments, corporates and other massively employing organisations can cover ca. 20% of general demand for work in populations growing ca. +2% a year these days. It means that 80% of people have to be employed by SMEs or to start self-employment. Agriculture jobs are still some option but it’s a global trend of migration to urban areas confirming low attractiveness of working in the countryside.
What’s the solution then, in front of the true fact that people with decent employment live much longer now and societies experience low number of SDG8 jobs provided by big organisations. It’s not early retirement at all. It’s not massive return to agriculture too. And it’s not free global migration yet. First of all it can be AI-supported self-employment in local trade and services. But sustainable one, implying access to social insurance and fair micro-finance inclusion. Mostly young people can cope with it, ‘gig economy’ somehow proves it. Young people are also techy enough to start working MimiKazi way.
Mimi kazi — in Swahili — means: “I work”, and logically relates to what I did experience in Mexico. The seller of coconuts was working all the time but I didn’t know where he was right now. Imagine him now as a part of AI-supported marketplace for young entrepreneurs starting their businesses with nothing more than just a simple smartphone they usually have and a lot of hopes for a better future. Over 50% of hawkers and street vendors in developing and emerging markets start like that, in fact. As a part of such a marketplace, he’d be able to share his location, to take online orders, to talk to his customers, to get reviews recommending his honest work, to sell much more, to make savings with every mobile payment he gets, to pay his social insurance, to build his own and his customers’ micro credit scoring. Yes, all these issues are outcome of data he generates even now, while doing his job.
We assess that only in Africa “MimiKazi” can take 300 million young people out of the risk of unemployment, labour slavery or poverty before 2030. Local FMCG trade and basic services’ habits let people do decent work with support of tech. All African countries require 18 million new jobs a year but only ca. 3 million of them appear in the labour market. Therefore, illegal immigration is a fact. Keep fingers crossed, applied AI comes for individual and general good!
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