Resources For an AI-Controlled Base In Ethiopia

In a story I mentioned that an AI overlord in 2036 has one of "her" bases in Ethiopia, and now I want to develop that offhand idea into its own story. My AI is equivalent to a very smart human with computer-related abilities like perfect memory, but not completely beyond human understanding. Her short-term goal is to keep people alive and happy, and her long-term goal (achieved by 2037) is brain uploading, ie. getting volunteers to have their brains fatally scanned in so their simulated minds can live in a VR paradise. Other than the above she doesn't have any amazing technology like "instantly-build-anything" nanotech. Once she starts doing uploading, she gets free skilled labor from the people who've already signed up, but probably doesn't have more than a handful of robots before around 2040.

So, Ethiopia. Where does the AI put her base within the country, and how does she get adequate raw materials and energy so that the place at least breaks even financially? I see the place has cheap labor, hydro power, severe corruption, and poor infrastructure. Can she plausibly mine the materials for making more computers and solar panels (or other energy sources), to support a self-sustaining operation with growing electricity and hardware needs? Assume she and her allies address the problems of politics, religion, defense &c; that's what the storytelling is for. Also assume she's got a significant startup fund on the order of millions or tens of millions of dollars, so she can build something but hasn't got gigantic factories or the like yet.

Edit: Yes, the country could be improved by the 2030s, though so far I haven't decided anything in-universe other than that there's some nasty warfare going on in the area. That could coexist with decent prosperity elsewhere in the country. I'm assuming the place isn't much better or worse than it is today; various NGOs' rankings put it in the "terrible but not a compete hellhole" category. One thing not directly relevant to my question is the rule of law and what it means for the ability to build stuff safely; there's some storytelling to be done there. I'm asking about (1) where to build, and (2) whether it's plausible to mine/farm materials for a mostly sustainable base. I assume the AI and friends work out solutions to the many social problems.

Re: technology, the AI isn't tied to one piece of hardware; she's got several small bases like small R&D companies in Canada and the US, and can distribute her operations through a mix of the Internet, heavy encryption, and "sneakernet" sneakiness. For power/cooling I don't know specific numbers, but figure 2030s computers are "better but more improved in efficiency/size than in raw power", which might just be unimaginative continuation of current trends. Late in the existing story's timeline I say there's at least one major base with all kinds of security, but it's not the only one, and there's some low-level computation being done on widely marketed handheld gadgets.

posted almost 9 years ago

Snow‭

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