Episode
Episode 176 - From Neural Networks at Cambridge to AI Governance in Kenya with Akili AI's Simon Bransfield-Garth
- Published
- May 8, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 3396
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Summary
Simon Bransfield-Garth was writing his doctoral research on artificial neural networks at Cambridge in 1985 — forty years before most people had heard of AI. In this episode, he traces that journey through Myriad Solutions (a vector processor company that preceded the GPU era), Symbian (the smartphone OS that defined the pre-iPhone world), Cellcrypt (mobile voice security for governments worldwide), and Azuri Technologies (pay-as-you-go solar for 250,000+ households across nine African markets) — and explains how all of it led him to found Akili AI in 2024. We discuss: why 42% of Kenyan internet users use ChatGPT but most Kenyan boards think they have zero AI in their business; what Akili Snapshot reveals when you run it on a typical EastAfrican financial institution; how Akili AI took a loan processing workflow from two weeks to five minutes; and why Simon believes the biggest risk for Africa is not adopting AI too fast — it is adopting it too slowly. CHAPTERS 00:00 Introduction 03:10 Simon's early career — Cambridge, neural networks, Myriad Solutions 08:35 The Symbian years and the lesson of a platform that missed the shift 12:53 Cellcrypt and the intersection of security and AI 15:36 Azuri Technologies and a decade of building in Africa 19:34 Why Akili AI focuses on financial services 21:22 AI adoption in Kenya — the consumer/corporate gap 27:51 The three things AI actually is — and why governance is the hard part 31:45 Introducing Akili Snapshot and Akili Assured 42:24 What boards do not know about their own AI exposure 46:16 Two scenarios for AI in Africa over the next decade 49:18 Advice for corporate leadership, startups and the general public 55:04 Where to find Akili AI and take the free Snapshot assessment LINKS Akili AI website: https://akili-ai.com Free Aki…