TRANSLATING THE BLACK BOX: How Dr. Thomas Tagoe is Equipping Ghanaian Journalists to Demystify Artificial Intelligence

Dr Tagoe

As artificial intelligence systems become increasingly embedded in daily life across West Africa, neuroscientist and science communicator Dr. Thomas Amatey Tagoe a Senior Lecturer at the University of Ghana and co-founder of G.H.Scientific took center stage at the Media Excellence For Emerging Technologies Fellowship program (UK MEET) to equip journalists with practical tools to demystify complex technology.

Delivering a high-impact workshop titled “AI Video: Translating the Black Box,” Dr. Tagoe led participants through a hands-on masterclass as part of the UK MEET fellowship organized by the UK Government in partnership with Imperial Global Ghana with support from Imperial College London.

Positioned during the fellowship's focus on interrogating technology, his session provided reporters with a practical method to bridge the gap between complex technological concepts and everyday public understanding.

At the heart of Dr. Tagoe’s workshop was a core communication philosophy: communication remains incomplete without genuine audience understanding, moving along a clear progression from knowledge to understanding and ultimately to action. Challenging journalists to look beyond mere technical jargon, Dr. Tagoe emphasized that "accurate is not the same as useful." To demonstrate this, he contrasted a dense technical explanation of voice-synthesis models with a direct, practical warning about mobile money scams, proving that news stories must give citizens immediate, actionable information rather than alienating terminology.

In an exclusive interview he stated ""*Journalists serve as a bridge between those with technical expertise and those without , at a time where AI is getting more and more technical, its great to see this fellowship strengthening the bridge"*

To help reporters translate complex ideas quickly, Dr. Tagoe introduced fellows to a structured 60-second video explainer framework consisting of four distinct parts: setting the context, simplifying the core message, shedding light on a common misunderstanding and sharing an actionable next step that viewers can take. All of this at a calm pace of less than 140 spoken words. Insisting that effective comparisons must be localized, he demonstrated how everyday Ghanaian touchstones clarify abstract mechanics. For example, he explained that AI training data behaves like a trotro mate who knows every bus stop in Accra but gets confused in Tamale, while chatbot hallucinations resemble a roadside passerby who gives confident directions to a lost driver rather than admitting he is also lost.

During the interactive session, fellows selected from twelve "Black Box" technical topics such as facial recognition, loan app credit scoring, and AI medical scans and wrote 60-second scripts tailored to real Ghanaian personas like a waakye seller or a school teacher. Following the rule to "let AI help, but never let it decide," reporters used AI tools to refine concepts while verifying every fact with human sources. Draft scripts were then put through "The Contact Test"—a peer-review exercise where partners played the target persona to check if the main message was plain, accurate, and actionable.

Dr. Tagoe concluded by charging journalists to adopt three permanent newsroom habits: write the actionable step first, test scripts on a real person, and always show who holds accountability when an algorithm fails. By grounding technical explanation in local realities and audience empowerment, Dr. Thomas Tagoe’s session delivered a vital blueprint for West African newsrooms, turning reporters into trusted guides who can pull back the curtain on artificial intelligence for the public good.