Can Ubuntu survive the age of AI

Can Ubuntu survive the age of AI?

8 June 2026 - Rennie Naidoo

As AI becomes more conversational, the real question is not only what it can do, but what it may displace in a society rooted in presence and community.

Generative AI is moving quickly into the ordinary routines of work, learning and communication. It is being framed as a breakthrough in productivity, access and personalised support.

But beneath the excitement sits a harder question. What happens to our ideas of care, obligation and community when more of our relationships are mediated by machines?

That question matters globally. In South Africa, it carries particular weight.

We live in a country where social trust is fragile, inequality is persistent and human institutions are often under strain. We also live with a moral tradition that has long pushed back against narrow individualism. Ubuntu, often expressed as "I am because we are", reminds us that personhood is not formed in isolation. It is shaped through our obligations to one another.

This is why the rise of humanlike AI matters beyond the technical realm. It is not only changing how we work, search and communicate. It may also begin to reshape how we understand care, attention and presence itself.

That is not just a technical shift. It is a social one.

Read the full article on ITWeb.

Rennie Naidoo, Professor of Information Systems at the Wits School of Business Sciences.