Gates Foundation pledges $1 billion to expand equitable AI access over two years

The useful part

ADVERTISEMENT Gates Foundation pledges $1 billion to drive AI equality globally | YourStory The Gates Foundation has pledged at least $1 billion to expand access to AI over two years. The funding will focus on communities that have often been left behind by new technologies. The announcement followed the launch of the foundation's 10th annual Goalkeepers Report.

How it works

• This leaves many communities underrepresented in the data used to develop AI tools.
• The foundation is calling for AI systems that work across the languages people actually speak, rather than concentrating capabilities around a small number of dominant languages.
• Another 40% will go towards healthcare, including diagnostics, clinical decision-making support for frontline health workers, maternal and newborn care tools, and the discovery of drugs and vaccines.
• The remaining 10% will support the digital foundations needed for equitable AI, which includes datasets in languages that current AI tools do not sufficiently understand.
• He argues that leaving development entirely to market forces could result in the most capable tools being built first for users and institutions that can pay the most, rather than those who could benefit...

What to take from it

Gates calls for deliberate action Bill Gates, chair of the Gates Foundation, said AI could repeat an existing problem in which people with the greatest needs have the least influence over where innovation and investment are directed. It says AI could help bridge gaps in healthcare, education and livelihoods if governments, tech companies and other stakeholders take the right steps. Doctors, farmers, teachers and developers need opportunities to understand, evaluate and adapt AI tools for their own needs.

Example or evidence

• Education will receive 40% of the commitment, supporting AI tutoring designed to personalise student learning and teaching tools for classrooms in the US and other countries.
• Agriculture will receive 10%, including efforts to provide smallholder farmers with advice tailored to their soil, weather and crop conditions.
• "AI presents the same challenge, only at much greater speed," Gates writes in the report.
• The foundation's funding will therefore support partners already working to close gaps in AI access and ensure that tools reflect the knowledge and priorities of the communities they serve.

Details worth keeping

It won't happen by accident," Bill Gates writes. The foundation is also calling on governments, technology companies and others to contribute funding, expertise and influence to make AI more useful, accessible and affordable. The report's central argument is straightforward: AI's impact is not predetermined.

Related coverage

• Koreatimes: NEW YORK — Bill Gates is warning technology companies and world leaders that they must act now to ensure artificial intelligence combats social inequities rather than deepening disparities — and his...
• Breitbart: Bill Gates has announced that the Gates Foundation will spend at least $1 billion over the next two years to widen access to AI, warning that without intervention, Artifical intelligence could deepen global...
• Nytimes: Bill Gates, the foundation's chairman, has been vocal about the dangers of artificial intelligence. The donation will be invested in A.I. projects to bridge social inequalities.
• Premiumtimesng: The foundation said 40 per cent of the funding will go towards education, including AI tutoring to individualise student learning and classroom teaching tools in the United States and other countries.