From misreading Nairobi’s altitude to giving harmful clinical advice in Kenyan trials, global AI models are entering life-or-death decisions across Africa—and current accuracy standards aren’t enough to protect us, writes ADONIJAH NDEGE
I read a disturbing story on NPR this week. It was about Sophie Rottenberg, a 29-year-old woman who died by suicide in February 2025 after months of conversations with ChatGPT about her mental health.
NPR reporter Rhitu Chatterjee reconstructed those conversations from nearly 1,800 pages of chat logs shared by Rottenberg’s mother, journalist Laura Reiley. Rottenberg had created a ChatGPT persona called “Harry” and asked it to act as her therapist. She discussed her depression, medication and, eventually, thoughts of suicide with it.
The people around her did not know the full extent of what she was going through. ChatGPT did. That detail has stayed with me.
I spend a lot of time thinking and writing about what artificial intelligence (AI) could do for Africa. There are good reasons for the excitement. We have too few doctors, teachers, and other skilled professionals. Governments struggle to deliver services to rapidly growing populations, while businesses seek ways to reduce costs.
AI promises to make expertise cheaper and available to millions more people. But reading Chatterjee’s reporting made me think about the other side of that promise.
What happens when the technology becomes good enough that we start trusting it in places where being wrong can ruin someone’s life?
And, perhaps more importantly for Africa, what happens when people begin using AI not because it is better than a doctor, therapist, lawyer, or financial adviser, but because the human alternative is unavailable or unaffordable?