In 1961, Friedrich Dürrenmatt already questioned, in The Physicists, humanity confronted with science advancing faster than its capacity to master the consequences. Sixty-five years later, the train is called artificial intelligence. The United States and China have taken a lead. Europe is trying to accelerate to stay in the race. But behind it, an entire continent risks seeing the train pull away: Africa.
The question is no longer only how far artificial intelligence will lead us. It is to know who will be on board, who will drive the train and who will stay on the platform.
The essentials of this op-ed
- Artificial intelligence redraws the balance of power: the United States and China have a significant lead; Europe is seeking to accelerate; Africa risks remaining mainly a user of technologies designed elsewhere.
- The real challenge goes beyond buying software: entering the AI economy requires skills, computing infrastructures, energy, research, capital, and the ability to create local value.
- For Africa, AI can open a new path: enabling part of its youth to work for the world economy from the continent and gradually moving from exporting brains to exporting their know-how.
- Imed Derouiche advocates for a Euro-African project: jointly invest in education, technological universities, digital infrastructures, energy and entrepreneurship so that Africa does not stay left out of this new industrial revolution.
The train accelerates
Let us imagine science as a train. As it speeds up, the landscape whizzes by faster and faster. Those on board see new horizons appear; those left on the platform understand less and less where it is headed. And when the train reaches sufficient speed, even its passengers may eventually wonder whether they still truly control the destination.
Today, this train is called artificial intelligence.
In the 1960s, the major concern was humanity’s ability to master the power of the atom. In 2026, a comparable question accompanies artificial intelligence: are we capable of adapting our institutions, our economies and our societies to the pace at which this technology progresses?
The comparison has its limits: artificial intelligence is not an atomic bomb. But the two technological ruptures share a fundamental point in common: they compel society to rethink the responsibility that accompanies a dramatic increase in its capabilities.
A new geography of power
The United States currently occupies a central position in the global AI ecosystem, while China pursues its own technological and industrial trajectory. Europe boasts researchers, companies and a substantial scientific base, but it still has to transform these assets into industrial capacity, computing infrastructure, and global-scale technological champions.
The fault line of tomorrow could therefore separate less the rich countries from the poor than the countries capable of designing, training and controlling AI systems from those that will merely use them.
Because behind digital intelligence lies a deeply physical infrastructure: semiconductors, data centers, power networks, energy, capital and, above all, knowledge.
The risk is then to see the emergence of a new form of dependency. Some countries could supply the energy, the minerals or even the data needed for the global digital economy while importing the AI technologies that will capture most of the value.
This would be a new international division of labor: some countries would produce intelligence, while others would consume it.
What if Africa’s next train did not head toward Europe?
This question may seem provocative. Yet it lies at the heart of the challenge facing the continent.
For decades, when Africa, Europe and a train, a boat or a border are mentioned in the same breath, it is almost always to speak of migration. And what if we changed perspective?
What if the next great journey of Africa’s youth was no longer necessarily the one that leads to Europe, but the one that allows them to join the global knowledge economy without leaving their continent?
This train already exists. It is the train of artificial intelligence.
The issue is not, of course, to claim that AI will make migrations disappear. Migrations have multiple causes: economic, political, demographic, climate-related, familial and human. But artificial intelligence can act on one of the most important: the lack of prospects.
Training a young African in AI, giving them access to digital infrastructures, and enabling them to work for the global economy from Tunis, Dakar, Lagos, Nairobi, Kigali or Abidjan, offers them a new possibility: to participate in the global creation of value without having to leave their country to access it.
Africa could then gradually move from a logic of exporting its brains to a logic of exporting their intelligence.
Africa holds part of the train’s fuel
The paradox is that Africa holds several of the resources the global digital economy will need: a young population, considerable potential in renewable energy, and some of the strategic mineral resources required for technological infrastructures.
It could thus contribute to physically fueling the AI train. The question is whether it will accept to stay on the platform while its resources travel aboard.
To avoid this scenario, investing in AI cannot be limited to buying software. It requires a long-term strategy: education, training, universities, digital infrastructures, data centers, competitive energy, research, entrepreneurship and access to capital.
Europe has an interest in Africa getting on board
This vision should not be regarded as an Africa-only policy. It could become a true Euro-African project.
Rather than continually dedicating more resources to managing the consequences of economic migrations, Europe and Africa could invest more in the causes of prosperity: digital skills, technological universities, computing infrastructure, energy and massive AI training programs.
It would not be aid in the traditional sense, but an investment in a new Euro-African relationship based on knowledge and value creation.
Europe would gain a more prosperous neighborhood and a vast reservoir of skills. Africa would gain something even more important: the possibility of offering its youth a credible alternative to leaving.
Because migrations will never be permanently reduced simply by building walls. We must also build reasons to stay.
The AI train will not wait for Africa
Sixty-five years after Dürrenmatt, the train accelerates again. This time, Africa knows it exists.
It has the energy to help propel it forward. It has the youth to participate in its operation. It also has immense needs to which artificial intelligence can bring new solutions.
The real risk is therefore not that the AI train goes too fast. It is that the distance between the train and the platform becomes such that one day it is too late to catch up.
Africa faces a historic decision: watch the train go by — or get on board.
Imed Derouiche
Energy, Hydrogen and Digital Transition Expert
