Artificial intelligence serving African storytelling: what challenges and what prospects?

At a time when African media urgently need to tell their own stories, the combination of rich photographic archives and artificial intelligence offers a powerful opportunity. Yet many African broadcasters still have archives that remain largely underused because of limited resources, tools and technical know-how.

The African Union of Broadcasting has therefore launched a training programme with RT Academy. The inaugural session, “Creating promos and viral videos”, led on 11 November 2025 by Boris Gorlov, Head of RT’s Creative Department, explored how AI can help broadcasters modernise production, transform archive material into contemporary visual content, speed up editing, improve visual coherence and strengthen audience engagement.

The session also placed strong emphasis on ethics. Participants discussed the need to protect integrity, authenticity and public trust in digital storytelling, especially in relation to deepfakes, manipulated historical imagery and promotional parody.

More than 80 media professionals from Senegal, Botswana, Nigeria, Angola, Cameroon, Kenya, Tanzania and other countries took part in the training.

For AUB, AI tools can help restore and colourise old photographs, contextualise decades of struggles and progress, and turn historical archives into modern video formats. Used responsibly, they can help Africa preserve its memory while developing an authentic digital storytelling language that meets international standards.

Further sessions were scheduled for 18 November on high-impact graphics, 24 November on television editing trends and 28 November on filming techniques and the physics of production.

Irène Gaouda.