Artificial Intelligence-Driven Cybersecurity for Critical Infrastructure Protection: A Pathway to Sustainable Development

Abstract

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is increasingly deployed at a societal scale, mediating healthcare, agriculture, education, and public services. Yet without ethical safeguards and human-centered design, such systems risk amplifying inequities and eroding trust. This paper introduces the Frugal and Sovereign Human-Centered AI (FS-HCAI) framework, which integrates five pillars of frugality, sovereignty, inclusivity, transparency, and ethical alignment, to guide the responsible evolution of agentic AI. Drawing on case studies from Uganda and Rwanda, we demonstrate how FS-HCAI principles translate into measurable public benefit, from Uganda’s national ethical AI framework for public trust to Rwanda’s drone-enabled medical logistics that reduce delivery times and save lives in remote communities. The framework emphasizes participatory design, local data stewardship, and contextual ethics as actionable constraints for building resilient, trusted, and socially embedded AI systems. We further discuss challenges in scaling participatory methods, institutionalizing ethical oversight, and reconciling global frameworks with local epistemologies. Our recommendations highlight pathways for policy, design, research, and capacity building to operationalize FS-HCAI at scale. We argue that ethical and human-centered AI is not a luxury but a necessity for societal-scale deployment, particularly in Africa, and that FS-HCAI offers a blueprint for building AI systems that are not only intelligent, but also just, inclusive, and sovereign.