Doctor of Stars & Teacher of AI | Yabebal Fantaye, PhD | 10 Academy & Tenacious Intelligence Corp. Artwork

MeliaCRED: Conversations with Elvis

Has the internet created a virtual labour market for new kinds of services? Does connectivity now allow job-seekers from the Global South, young people from low-income countries, to grow rich online? Did this help overcome the borders that have separated rich from poor? If not, might the Metaverse now create this new market space in the cloud? Are online labour platforms becoming immersive labour markets with equal access for all? I discuss these questions in conversations with online workers, policy makers, academics, educators, consultants, and firm executives from around the world.

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MeliaCRED: Conversations with Elvis

Doctor of Stars & Teacher of AI | Yabebal Fantaye, PhD | 10 Academy & Tenacious Intelligence Corp.

August 27, 2025 • Elvis Melia • Episode 22

Elvis speaks with Dr. Yabebal Fantaye, a cosmologist-turned-AI educator and co-founder of 10 Academy, about transforming African talent into global AI professionals through intensive boot camps. From analysing the universe with 10,000 supercomputers at Berkeley to building Ethiopia's AI workforce pipeline, Yabebal shares his remarkable journey from pursuing a Nobel Prize in physics to democratizing AI education across 21 African countries.

They explore 10 Academy's intensive 3-month programs that transform beginners into job-ready AI engineers, as well as their ambitious AI4E project, targeting 1 million Africans with AI literacy. Yabebal reveals how generative AI is collapsing trust barriers for African outsourcers and why he believes Ethiopia's demographic dividend positions the country for an AI-powered economic breakthrough.

About Yabebal Fantaye:

Dr. Yabebal Fantaye is a cosmologist, data scientist, and AI educator who bridges cutting-edge research with practical education. With a PhD in Cosmology from SISSA, he worked on the Planck Consortium, analysing cosmic microwave background data alongside Nobel laureates. A World Economic Forum Young Scientist (2018) and member of the Global Future Councils, he was named among the 50 most influential Africans by Jeune Afrique Magazine. He co-founded 10 Academy in 2020 and Tenacious Intelligence Corp in 2021 and leads Astrobus Ethiopia, promoting critical thinking across the country. His work applies AI to both cosmological datasets and African development monitoring.

Connect with Yabebal:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yabebal-fantaye/
GitHub: https://github.com/yabebalFantaye
10 Academy: https://10academy.org/

Connect with Elvis:

Website: https://meliacred.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elvismelia/

Substack: https://elvismeliacred.substack.com

Find us on:

LinkedIn: @meliacred

Instagram: @meliacred

X/Twitter: https://x.com/ailemsivle

TikTok: @meliacred1

About this Podcast: "MeliaCRED: Conversations with Elvis" explores how AI and automation reshape work, education, and economic development, particularly in Africa. This interview was conducted as part of fieldwork for research on "The Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Global Business Services in Ghana and Rwanda" for Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) Invest for Jobs – Special initiative "Decent Work for a Just Transition."

#AI #Ethiopia #10Academy #AIEducation #AfricaTech #Cosmology #FutureOfWork #AILiteracy #Outsourcing #TechBootcamp #GlobalBusinessServices #DigitalTransformation #ArtificialIntelligence #MachineLearning #DataScience #TechEducation #AfricanTalent