Episode 176 - From Neural Networks at Cambridge to AI Governance in Kenya with Akili AI's Simon Bransfield-Garth

Episode 176 - From Neural Networks at Cambridge to AI Governance in Kenya with Akili AI's Simon Bransfield-Garth

From Pure Digital Passion with Moses Kemibaro by Moses Kemibaro

May 8, 2026 · 57 min · Episode 176

About this episode

Simon Bransfield-Garth discusses his journey from neural networks at Cambridge to founding Akili AI and the challenges of AI adoption in Kenya.

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…

People in this episode

Host: Moses Kemibaro

Guest: Simon Bransfield-Garth

Topics covered

Keywords

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Akili AI, Myriad Solutions, Symbian, Cellcrypt, Azuri Technologies

Places: Kenya, Cambridge

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