This report examines how artificial intelligence integrates into artistic practice across Africa and the Middle East. It is a “State of Play”: a mapping and analytical study of current practices, conditions, and tensions. Any forward-looking elements are framed as perspectives and openings that emerge from the analysis, rather than as a strategy or implementation plan.

The study finds that the region’s engagement with AI is shaped less by technical enthusiasm than by uneven access to infrastructure, training resources, and locally relevant tools. Artists work within environments marked by uneven connectivity and power reliability, high hardware costs, and commercial AI systems calibrated to global markets that often miss local cultural and linguistic contexts. These conditions create practical barriers that slow experimentation and influence the forms of creativity possible.