American tech giants have increased spending on artificial intelligence tools designed to resolve some of the world’s most pressing problems.
Since 2020, Google has spent $200 million on AI-driven social projects worldwide to combat wildfires, hunger, and public health emergencies, according to Leslie Yeh, director of scientific progress at Google.org, the company’s charitable arm.
Most recently, in July, Google opened an AI Community Center in Ghana to support local innovation, and announced a $37 million investment in social impact projects under the catch-all label “AI for Good” across Africa.
Microsoft, Meta, Amazon, and Apple are funding similar projects, aligning themselves with a growing trend in which governments, global organizations, and private tech companies promote AI for public good — a push that aims to normalize the technology and soften the anxieties surrounding it.
Regional AI experts and industry leaders, however, urge caution, saying Africa could become a testing ground for AI models and a vast source of data collection in the U.S.-China tech rivalry, making the continent dependent on foreign-owned systems.
“AI for Good is still very much embedded and rooted in the same saviorism from the West towards the global south. Africa needs to start building reliable infrastructures that can power all these systems,” Asma Derja, founder of Ethical AI Alliance, a Spain-based advocacy group for safe AI, told Rest of World. “Otherwise, Big Tech will continue to make money off the region and then take a [corporate social responsibility] budget to finance a few projects that are addressing climate change or, you know, a particular topic in Tanzania or in Mongolia and call it AI for Good.”
The United Nations is counting on AI to accelerate nearly 80% of its sustainable development goals, while the European Union and African Union have drafted policies for safe AI adoption. Riding on this momentum, the bulk of Africa’s impact-driven AI activity is being carried out by for-profit organizations, including big tech firms, according to GSMA Intelligence, which represents mobile operators around the world. GSMA has identified 90 AI apps operating across the region. McKinsey & Company predicts the widespread use of generative AI in Africa could unlock up to $100 billion in annual economic value across multiple sectors.
Google has two AI labs in Africa — one in Accra, Ghana, and the other in Nairobi, Kenya — from which it has launched at least three AI models tackling climate change, public health, and the tracking of buildings and settlements.
Google’s global hydrological AI model uses satellite data to predict flooding up to seven days in advance in 41 African countries, covering 460 million people across the continent. The tool enables governments, social organizations, and communities to prepare for and respond to natural disasters. Last September, GiveDirectly, a New York-based nonprofit, leveraged the tool to precisely identify vulnerable communities in Nigeria’s Niger state and distribute aid packages ahead of the flooding.
In Nigeria, Google’s tool helps remotely identify the most vulnerable areas to target aid, according to Daniel Quinn, humanitarian director at GiveDirectly. “And again, this is work that would have, in a normal world without AI, taken months to accomplish with field teams,” he told Rest of World. “It took us about three weeks and we estimate that we saved about $80,000 in the Nigeria project alone.”
The International Rescue Committee and the U.N. have used the same tool for disaster preparedness.
In March, Google launched MetNet — an AI-powered precipitation forecasting system — in Nairobi. The tool, accessible through Google Search, helps farmers with small but critical decisions like when to spray fertilizer to avoid the risk of rain washing it away.
Google has developed a dashboard in collaboration with OnTime Consortium, a U.K.-based advocacy group working to improve maternity response in Ghana and Nigeria. The dashboard uses Google Maps’ AI to predict traffic obstructions on roads leading to Ghana’s public maternity hospitals. In 2023, Nigeria recorded 29% of all maternal deaths worldwide, making it one of the most dangerous countries for child birth.
Microsoft has partnered with Amref Health Africa, one of Kenya’s largest nonprofits, which develops AI-powered solutions for community health care. Meta’s model also supports targeted health system optimization and planning, such as the setting up of new facilities, placement of community health workers, and mobile outreach.
“The Microsoft AI for Good initiative is designed to be open-source and collaborative,” Girmaw Abebe Tadesse-Principle, research scientist and manager at Microsoft AI for Good Labs, a community-focused initiative, told Rest of World. “We provide computing infrastructure, research support, and technical expertise. … Our goal is to reduce barriers to entry for organizations and governments, ensuring that cost does not hinder access to transformative AI tools.”
Shikoh Gitau, founder and CEO at Qhala, a Nairobi-based digital transformation firm, believes altruistic AI health models are built to collect data and reap profits later.
“They are commercial organizations and they’re here to win the commercial race,” Gitau told Rest of World. “It’s not coming from the goodness of their heart. It is coming from the fact that I need data for health. What should I do? Provide people with something to build on top where they provide me their data. And using that data, I’m able to improve myself and win the race.”
Critics have pointed out AI projects focused on public service allow tech giants to wield power over vulnerable communities. Microsoft’s Project Ellora has come under public scrutiny for using rural laborers in India for speech data collection even though they lack access to smartphones or the internet, making it unlikely they will benefit from the AI technology produced. The company has faced blowback in Argentina for collecting the personal data of young girls in the northern province of Salta, under the pretext of helping the government predict teenage pregnancies and tackle the issue “five or six years ahead.”
In an emailed response to Rest of World, Aisha Walcott-Brant, head of Google Research Africa, said the company’s AI-centered philanthropy is transparent and responsible, involving collaboration with local institutions.
“We use public sources and responsibly governed datasets, and we are a founding member of the Data Commons Initiative, which supports well-managed data ecosystems for research and policy use,” Walcott-Brant said. “Projects are designed so that African researchers and entrepreneurs take leading roles in their creation and delivery. This ensures that communities have ownership of the solutions and that the benefits of AI are distributed widely.”
Great Job Damilare Dosunmu & the Team @ Rest of World – Source link for sharing this story.
