Blog
Insights on language AI, resource-efficient systems, and building technology for the Global South.
The Future of AI Is Resource-Efficient and We're Building It
AI is getting more powerful, but also more expensive, harder to run, and increasingly out of reach for much of the world. At Lelapa AI, we are building a different path.
By Nhlawulo Shikwambane
Locked Out by Design: The Compute Crisis Undermining African Innovation
While the world races to build faster models and more powerful infrastructure, Africa is being structurally locked out of the AI revolution.
By Nhlawulo Shikwambane
Doing Nothing Is Expensive: Why AI Is No Longer Optional in African Call Centres
Every missed call, every frustrated customer, every agent stretched to the limit — it all adds up. For African contact centres, the cost of doing nothing is rising fast.
By Nhlawulo Shikwambane
Africa's First Multilingual Small Language Model (SLM) Gets Even Smaller — Thanks to Top African Innovators
InkubaLM, Africa's inaugural multilingual Small Language Model, has achieved a remarkable 75% size reduction while preserving performance through the Buzuzu-Mavi Challenge.
By Nhlawulo Shikwambane
A Global First: How a New Sustainable Data Framework & License Are Transforming Language AI
Lelapa AI, in collaboration with Way With Words and DSFSI, has introduced the Esethu Framework — a data governance and licensing approach designed for long-term, scalable development of low-resource language datasets.
By Nhlawulo Shikwambane
Top African Language AI Trends to Watch in 2025
As AI continues to mature, one of the most important frontiers is how language systems are designed to operate under real-world constraints across Africa and the Global South.
By Nhlawulo Shikwambane
Celebrating Excellence: Atnafu Tonja and Benjamin Rosman Win Prestigious Outstanding Paper Award at EMNLP 2024
Two of our exceptional team members have received the Outstanding Paper Award at the prestigious 2024 EMNLP conference for their paper on 'The Zeno's Paradox of Low-Resource Languages'.
By Nhlawulo Shikwambane
InkubaLM: A Small Language Model for Low-Resource African Languages
Lelapa AI introduces InkubaLM, a robust, compact 400M parameter model designed to serve African communities without requiring extensive resources.
By Nhlawulo Shikwambane
Lelapa AI Zines
The Lelapa AI Zines are a collection of thoughts and ideas that represent what Lelapa AI stands for — from Ubuntu Punk to Responsible AI, printed and shared freely.
By Pelonomi Moiloa
Comparing Africa-centric Models to OpenAI's GPT3.5
The recent release of ChatGPT has transformed the landscape, but these models demonstrate limited performance with low-resourced languages. We benchmark Africa-centric models against GPT3.5.
By Jade Abbott, Bonaventure Dossou, Rooweither Mbuya
Responsible AI Framework for Data Science Practitioners
At Lelapa AI we have put together a self-check framework for data practitioners. It aims to ensure no form of analysis should be unleashed upon the world without clear communication of its mechanisms.
By Pelonomi Moiloa
Hindering the Expansion of Problematic AI
Like the Universe's tendency to expand, so too does everything living in it seek to mimic that expansion. It is out of this desire to expand that AI continues to evolve — and inadvertently ventures outside of it.
By Pelonomi Moiloa