There was the small boy with six toes. There was also a woman with more than two arms and many fingers. There are also the better ones, the ones where the families look perfect, like models, and it takes a long look to know that these are not real models in real backgrounds, but images generated using Artificial Intelligence (AI).

When Safaricom used generative AI to develop the images used in its 2023 Christmas campaign, the conversations exploded on social media and networking platforms X (formerly Twitter) and LinkedIn. There was a similar surge in conversations online when the company published its 2024 calendar.

Among the central questions: is AI a collaborator or a competitor in the creative industry? Is AI pushing human beings out of jobs, shunting creatives aside in favour of machines that spit out images based on instructions?

“I’ve been enjoying the conversation. I love that people are talking because that’s important. I think Kenyans need to be part of the discourse, whether the conversation is positive, whether it’s negative, because it challenges us,” says Zizwe Awuor, who heads brand and marketing at Safaricom.

On this edition of the Safaricom Newsroom podcast, Zizwe is in conversation with Trevor Maingi, a visual artist who was among those who took the photographs of scenic Kenyan locations that were then reimagined and rendered with AI for the 2024 calendar.

The conversation is moderated by Julian Kamau, Content Generation Manager at Safaricom.

Safaricom also uses AI to make sense of data, to understand and serve its customers better and with Zuri, to enhance customer care. This is in line with its vision to become a purpose-led technology company by 2025.

Regulation, ethics, the place of Africa in expanding the AI space as well as the long-term implications of AI in the creative economy and for Kenyan brands and corporates were all extensively tackled in this episode.

Listen here.