Don’t overestimate the competence of the elite class, as many of them peddle ideas that sound progressive but crumble under scrutiny. A prime example is Yann LeCun, Meta’s former chief AI scientist, who recently claimed at the India AI Impact Summit 2026 that future AI innovation and top scientists will emerge from India and Africa due to their “favorable demographics,” emphasizing that “the youth is the most creative part of humanity” and there’s a “deficit of that in the North.” This statement ignores historical patterns and demographic realities, suggesting a naive optimism detached from evidence. While LeCun’s credentials in AI are undeniable, such pronouncements reveal how even experts can overlook inconvenient truths in favor of feel-good narratives, potentially misleading investments and policies in emerging technologies.

Africa has indeed maintained the world’s youngest population for centuries, with a median age of around 19 years today—far below Europe’s 43 years or Asia’s averages—and historical data showing consistently high youth ratios driven by high fertility and declining child mortality. Yet, this demographic advantage has not translated into a hub of innovation; instead, the continent has lagged in technological development due to factors like poor infrastructure, outdated government policies, corruption, education gaps, and a historical reliance on natural resources rather than organized scientific advancement. While ancient Africa contributed early tools like stone axes, iron smelting, and astronomical observations, these pale in comparison to the sustained industrial and scientific revolutions elsewhere, often stifled by colonial exploitation and internal conflicts that prioritized survival over invention. Labeling Africa as a future AI powerhouse based solely on youth demographics overlooks these entrenched barriers, turning a complex issue into simplistic boosterism.

The hard truth is that the most creative sparks in humanity’s technological history have often come from white British men tinkering in their sheds, garages, or workshops, driving the Industrial Revolution and beyond. Figures like James Watt with the steam engine, Isaac Newton with foundational physics, Alexander Graham Bell with the telephone, and Tim Berners-Lee with the World Wide Web exemplify this pattern of individual ingenuity in modest settings leading to global transformations. Britain’s environment of relative stability, education, and cultural emphasis on empirical experimentation fostered these breakthroughs, contrasting sharply with regions hampered by systemic challenges. Elites like LeCun may downplay such realities for ideological reasons, but history substantiates that innovation thrives not just on youth, but on conducive systems—reminding us that overestimating disconnected experts can stall real progress.

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