Inaugurated in January 2017 by King Mohammed VI in the green city of Benguérir (near Marrakech), the university's first mission is to "connect" Morocco, Africa and the world. The 2,000 m2 building, which combines modernity and southern craftsmanship, houses one of the world's most powerful supercomputers. Capable of carrying out the most complex calculations, this giant computer is ranked 98th among the most powerful machines in the world, placing Morocco 26th in the world and 1st in Africa in terms of computing power, according to the UM6P.
"Artificial intelligence is no longer a trend, it's a commitment. We want to be at the forefront of technological innovation, especially in agritech, water and soil treatment, etc. All this gives us a huge amount of data that we have to process and analyze in order to draw conclusions," says Khalid Baddou, Chief of Staff to the President of UM6P.
Created by the powerful foundation of the industrial group Office Chérifien des Phosphates (OCP), the university has campuses in Rabat and Laâyoune in the Sahara. And it was in the Moroccan capital that the "AI movement" was launched at the end of 2022, Morocco's international center for artificial intelligence, which aims to become a regional hub. "We want to develop intra-Moroccan solutions in a Moroccan university to face these new challenges. The second pillar is the ethics of artificial intelligence. With all the debates about ChatGPT, these two aspects go hand in hand today," adds Khaled Baddou.
Long before the arrival of ChatGPT, on December 13, 2018, the Kingdom was keen to position itself. At the end of a forum on AI organized by UNESCO, the "Benguérir Declaration" was signed. That text aims to "promote a just, rights-based, open, accessible and multipartite artificial intelligence as a tool for the emancipation of African peoples, the production of knowledge by and about Africa and the transformation of societies."
As part of Morocco's strategy towards the continent, the UM6P is positioning itself as a repository for talent from the continent and its diaspora.
"Our slogan is "Empower talent, empower Africa". From the outset, our aim has been to position, strengthen and empower the African continent through the empowerment of talent and skills.
We do this by creating world-class courses that address the continent's issues, such as agriculture. The Masters in Fertilizer Science and Technology, for example, has 80% students from sub-Saharan Africa and 20% from Morocco. Touted as the future breadbasket of the world, Africa is home to over 60% of the world's unused arable land. According to a study commissioned by Microsoft, Africa is set to become the world's center for agro-technology solutions. By 2030, agri-tech will be worth $10 billion. Morocco intends to position itself well. The country alone has more than 60% of the world's phosphate reserves, and therefore of the fertilizers needed to cultivate this land.
The UM6P supports the Kingdom's ambitions to increase the contribution of the ICT sector from the current 3% to 11% of GDP and create 125,000 new jobs. According to Techcabal, Moroccan startups raised a record 269 million dirhams in 2021. A very encouraging figure, but still well behind the $100 million raised in Egypt, which remains in the lead.
