Google’s philanthropic arm, Google.org, has selected Kenya’s Jacaranda Health and EIDU as the only two beneficiaries from Africa among the 21 organisations to join the first Google.org Accelerator: Generative AI Cohort.
Jacaranda Health leverages Natural Language Processing (NLP) trained in African languages to expand digital health services to underserved mothers. EIDU employs generative AI for personalised tutoring services in low and middle-income countries through tailored digital learning exercises.
The six-month program is aimed at supporting nonprofits developing high-impact applications of generative AI. The selected organisations will focus on areas like climate, economic opportunities, health, education, and crisis response. In addition to technical training, workshops, mentors, and pro bono support from dedicated AI coaches; Google.org is also providing more than $20 million in funding across the projects.
Dorothy Ooko, Head of Communications and Public Affairs, Google, Africa, said: “Generative AI can empower social impact teams to be more productive, creative, and effective in serving their communities. We look forward to helping the chosen organisations harness the potential of this technology to tackle some of the continent’s most pressing challenges.”
A recent Google.org survey found that four out of five nonprofits believe generative AI can benefit their work, but nearly half lack the necessary tools, awareness, training, and funding to adopt it.
This diverse cohort also includes organisations from the United States, United Kingdom, France, and Germany.
Below are some of the selected nonprofits and their projects:
- Benefits Data Trust is using Large Language Models (LLMs) to build an AI-powered assistant that supports caseworkers and other front-line workers in helping low-income applicants access and enrol in public benefits.
- Beyond 12 is developing a generative AI-powered College Coach that will provide coaching at scale to first-generation college students and students from under-resourced communities.
- CareerVillage is developing new activities for its AI Career Coach to help underrepresented individuals navigate their career paths and achieve better employment outcomes.
- Climate Policy Radar is building an open digital database and knowledge graph for climate law and policy with a generative AI-enabled search interface to help climate leaders make evidence-based decisions.
- CodePath will launch AI tutoring and mentorship solutions to provide immediate, personalised career support to underserved communities.
- EIDU is using generative AI to provide personalised tutoring services in low- and middle income-countries through content for teachers and customised digital learning exercises for students.
- Full Fact is building a generative AI tool to analyse and summarise large volumes of health misinformation across various media, reducing fact checkers’ workload.
- IDinsight, Inc. provides prompt and accurate, generative AI-powered responses to health-related inquiries from new or expectant mothers in South Africa.
- Jacaranda Health scales digital health services to mothers who live in underserved areas using Natural Language Processing (NLP) that has been trained in African languages.
- Justicia Lab is creating an AI assistant to help immigrants understand their options for attaining legal status — providing them with actionable information throughout the process and offering customised guidance on their path to immigration relief.
- Materiom is creating a generative AI tool for entrepreneurs to build and test compostable biomaterial recipes that help to transform the packaging and textiles industries to become regenerative.
- mRelief is creating an assistant to help with applying for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits in the U.S.
- Opportunity@Work is helping employers gain greater insights into career paths that don’t rely solely on degree-based qualifications in order to boost employability for more workers Skilled Through Alternative Routes.
- Partnership to End Addiction is enhancing the reach and quality of its addiction support services for families by using AI to build training simulations and quality assurance tools.
- org is building a new tool to provide students with immediate, AI-powered feedback and coaching on writing and reading comprehension activities, enabling them to quickly build new skills while saving teachers hours of time.
- Tabiya’s generative AI tool empowers job seekers in low- and middle-income countries with tailored and relevant advice at scale to enable better job matches, increased gender equity and higher incomes.
- Tarjimly uses AI-powered translation to empower human translators for refugees — improving accessibility, quality, and scale of translation for low-resource languages globally.
- S. Digital Response is helping governments understand how to use generative AI effectively to improve efficiency and impact, starting with a language access tool to reduce barriers to unemployment insurance.
- World Bank is developing a generative AI tool to make development research more accessible, extracting evidence-based findings from research to help policymakers make decisions faster and direct resources more effectively.
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