AfriClimate AI participation at the Deep Learning Indaba 2024: from a spark to a community, leading AI for climate action

The Deep Learning Indaba 2024 was not just another event for us--it was a reunion. For AfriClimate AI, the Indaba represents our birthplace. It was at the Indaba 2023 in Accra, Ghana, that a pivotal conversation ignited a movement, sparking the creation of AfriClimate AI. "Last year, I was invited to give a talk about my work on Uncertainty, AI, and Climate Science at the Deep Learning Indaba in Accra, Ghana. As is usual with invited talks, one tends to focus on the successful parts of the work. But for some reason, that morning, I decided to add a slide about the challenges of working in AI and sustainability in Africa, primarily driven by the pervasive data scarcity issues. It turned out that almost everyone in the room identified with these issues. This was the birthplace of AfriClimate AI, a grassroots research community dedicated to tackling these issues head-on through capacity building, open datasets, representative benchmarks, and state-of-the-art weather forecasting models for Africa."