President BD Faye: “I do not want Senegalese youth to be clients of the intelligence of others” September 29, 2026
Senegalese youth must not be customers of the intelligence of others, particularly artificial intelligence (AI). This was supported on Tuesday by the President of the Republic, Bassirou Diomaye Faye, during the official installation ceremony of the Senegal Youth Advisory Council.
Today, with the breakthrough of digital technology, artificial intelligence increasingly occupies and shapes the lives of individuals, particularly young people. But, despite being simple consumers, the President of the Republic, Bassirou Diomaye Faye, invites Senegalese youth to be actors in this digital transformation of their country and the world.
“You are entering a world that no ancient has seen, and no one has crossed it before you. I owe you this frankness. I can tell you what to pack, but I can’t tell you the route. This world already has a name, and you say it every day. Machines now write, calculate, translate, draw, diagnose,” he said in front of an assembly made up largely of young people from different localities in Senegal.
In fact, underlines the Head of State, these machines answer any question in a few seconds, in all languages, and soon in their own.
“It’s called artificial intelligence, and you’re already living with it. I’m not afraid of it, and I’m not asking you to be afraid of it. I promised you honesty, and I won’t hide the rest from you. Jobs will change, and some will disappear, including jobs for which you are preparing. Others will be born, which our schools do not yet teach, and fortunately, it is you who will invent them,” he added.
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However, notes President Faye, the truth itself is under attack. Because a machine can imitate a voice, make a face, make a man say what he has never said. And these machines are not neutral. They were nurtured elsewhere, in other languages, with other values.
“A people who are content to consume them entrust others with the task of thinking for them. We have known this before, under another name. So I tell you straight. I do not want Senegalese youth to be clients of the intelligence of others,” he said.
In reality, the President of the Republic wants engineers, linguists, lawyers, entrepreneurs who manufacture it, who teach him the national languages, who bend it to their needs. Who instill their values in him.
“A satellite designed by young Senegalese was circling above our heads a few months ago. Cheikh Anta Diop wanted you armed to the teeth with science. He couldn’t imagine these machines. Today they prove him right,” noted the Head of State.
Indeed, he notes, the machine will know everything. She will not have been initiated into anything. She will have read all the books on courage, and she will never have been afraid. She will know how to define the word given, and she will never have had to keep it when it costs.
Youth Advisory Council: a promise translated into action
“Today, in broad daylight, in front of the Nation, for its daughters and for its sons, the Republic is doing what our elders did on the sidelines. She takes you aside. She tells you what she knows. And she gives you your first load. I promised you this charge,” he said.
On March 30, in Thiès, at the Lat-Dior stadium, recalled President Bassirou Diomaye Faye, he noted that in Senegal, we talk a lot about youth and that we too often decide without them. However, he believes that this had to change, and that it could not wait any longer.
“Here we are. The decree of December 5, 2025 created this Council. Today you gave him faces. This Council is consultative, and I stick to that word. In our regions, we did not decide before having consulted and discussed. It was in the “pénc” that the village decided. And in this penc, the young people were not simple spectators,” he said.
So, for the Head of State, the Republic is not inventing anything with this installation. She ties up a thread. “But this thread is old, and the world it must connect today is new. The elders of the “pénc” knew the world on which they decided. Yours is changing faster than anyone can understand,” he said.
Mariama DIEME
