South African AI Awards to recognise innovation that creates opportunity

The inaugural South African AI Awards, presented by NTT DATA, will be held in Sandton to celebrate local artificial intelligence innovation that focuses on inclusive socio-economic prosperity, according to the Mail and Guardian.

In another development, Global Advisors Communications (GA) won two awards at the 2026 PRNEWS Platinum Awards in New York for its “AI Powers Africa” campaign. As reported by Capital FM Kenya and Capital Business, the campaign highlighted the UAE’s US$1 billion “AI for Development” initiative, which seeks to help African countries utilize artificial intelligence to create opportunities in infrastructure, agriculture, and education.

Meanwhile, Free Malaysia Today reports that South African writer Coral Hart has published more than 370 books since February 2025 using artificial intelligence. Using the pseudonym Coral Hart to protect her identity, the author stated she has received death threats and tens of thousands of hate messages. Hart, who worked in publishing for 14 years prior to using the technology, noted that she utilizes different models, such as ChatGPT for dialogue and Claude for story structure.

Brief written by urgent.news from Mail and Guardian, Free Malaysia Today, Capital FM Kenya, Capital Business — 4 reports on this story. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.