ARTIFICIAL intelligence (AI) may be the last weapon left to recover the billions of rand looted from the South African treasury, allegedly by the Gupta family and their captured government cohorts,
That’s according to Dr Duncan Coulter, Deputy Head of Department at the Academy of Computer Science and Software Engineering at the University of Johannesburg who believes AI is the ideal tool to use to detect suspicious spending patterns in large-scale fraud investigations.
“It could still be used to do a reverse analysis of suspicious spending patterns if the historical data was made available to investigators. Because AI systems are intelligent they can be taught to recognise patterns that are out of the ordinary and in that way point to transactions that are irregular and thus enable investigators to track down the culprits who were involved in fraudulent activities.”
Coulter said AI was already playing a major role in stimulating economic growth world-wide because of its ability to increase the efficiencies of virtually every mechanised system on earth.
Without knowing it, many South Africans were already interacting with AI-driven systems through so-called chat bots at call centres where voice systems were helping them to solve problems or even to order a wide range of goods and services.
“The applications of AI are going to get dramatically more wide-ranging and effective over time as IT engineers become more adept at using this hugely powerful technology to improve the quality of life for all humanity.
“Ranging from healthcare to retail, humans will increasingly be interacting with AI-driven systems without even being aware of it,” Coulter said.
Pierre le Roux, Managing Director at Moyo Business Advisory, said artificial intelligence and associated technologies like big data analytics and machine learning were right at the forefront of techniques being used by his team of IT engineers to make a wide variety of corporates ranging from banking to mining more efficient and secure.
“While the South African business community may have been slow to embrace some of the latest ICT technologies, the word has gone out that especially in the difficult economic times we are experiencing in this country at the moment, AI and its associated technologies can not only help businesses to survive but to thrive.”
He said it was imperative for government to play a role in placing the role of technology front and centre in all their future economic strategies and planning.
“We are on the eve of a business boom in South Africa but we have a backlog of almost ten years of corruption and misrule to catch up on.
“Now is the time to maximise all of our corporate resources including data and management performance through the introduction of cutting edge technologies,” Le Roux said.