artificial intelligence

InstaDeep: ‘Africa must join the tech revolution’

By Quentin Velluet

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Posted on February 10, 2023 11:06

 Meet Karim Beguir and Zohra Slim, co-founders of InstaDeep, a start-up specializing in artificial intelligence and machine learning. Paris, 25 January 2023. © Vincent Fournier for Jeune Afrique
Meet Karim Beguir and Zohra Slim, co-founders of InstaDeep, a start-up specializing in artificial intelligence and machine learning. Paris, 25 January 2023. © Vincent Fournier for Jeune Afrique

Could artificial intelligence (AI) have predicted that the meeting of Karim Beguir, a polytechnician specialising in social impacts in Tunisia, and Zohra Slim, a self-taught developer, who had nothing in common would lead to the creation of one of the most influential companies in global deep tech?

In the mid-2010s, Beguir, born in Échirolles in the suburbs of Grenoble (France) in 1976, found himself in Tataouine, the Tunisian hometown where his father – a doctor – grew up.

Upon founding the Academy, an association dedicated to football and computer coding for young people, Beguir wished to create a website to publicise his initiative, so a mutual friend introduced him to Slim, a freelance developer and daughter of a diplomat, who found herself more interested in launching a website design service start-up for local small businesses instead of continuing her studies in English at the Sorbonne in Paris. So, the two had a conversation.

This is where InstaDeep got its start. Founded in 2014 by the entrepreneurial duo, it has since become one of the world references in artificial intelligence and machine learning alongside companies such as DeepMind or OpenAI, the designer of the now-controversial ChatGPT.

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