The Scientific Director of the Responsible Artificial Intelligence Lab (RAIL), Prof Jerry John Kponyo is calling for an adequate understanding of the development cycle of Artificial Intelligence for informed regulation.

"It's important that before we talk about regulation, we have a very good understanding of what we seek to regulate. Right from the envisioning stage to the deployment stage, there are various aspects of the development cycle of AI solutions that one needs to pay particular attention to," he said.

Prof Kponyo comments come on the back of a motion in Ghana's Parliament to regulate Artificial Intelligence.

He was speaking at the maiden Africa AI conference in Kigali, Rwanda.

Prof Kponyo was worried any regulation by external bodies may hamper creativity.

He believes self-regulation by actors will be beneficial.

"I will prefer we self-regulate rather than to be regulated by an external body. The fear with external regulation is the stifling of creativity and becoming an obstacle as far as the positives of AI are concerned.

"Right from the envisioning stage to the deployment stage, they'll make sure they apply principles with regards to AI solutions to ensure AI deployment is responsible," he's optimistic.

Already, RAIL has developed a framework that serves as a basis for determining whether an AI solution is beneficial or not.

He, therefore, urged actors in the AI space to familiarise themselves with the framework and other useful frameworks.