The investment is the foundation’s latest effort to bring the benefits of AI to low- and middle-income countries.
On Tuesday, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced a $30 million investment in a new AI platform in Africa that it says will aid scientists in developing solutions for healthcare and social issues across the continent.
The foundation hopes the initiative will make AI, which Bill Gates has referred to as “the most important advance in technology since the graphical user interface,” more accessible to African researchers, paving the way for local innovation. It also aims to ensure the technology is developed safely, ethically and equitably.
“The world needs to make sure that everyone-and not just people who are well-off- benefits from artificial intelligence. Government and philanthropy will need to play a major role in ensuring that it reduces inequity and doesn’t contribute to it. This is the priority for my own work related to AI,” Gates said in a blog post in March.
As interest in AI continues to grow, the foundation has pushed to bring the technology to low- and middle-income countries. In August, it announced it would spend $5 million to fund nearly 50 generative AI projects focusing on global health and development in countries like Pakistan and Brazil.
At the Grand Challenges Annual Meeting–a conference that bring together funding and research partners-currently being held in Dakar, Senegal, Gates said the world would have to spend $3 billion more each year on global health and development issues to close the gaps in funding for overlooked diseases.
Bill Gates, with a fortune estimated by Forbes at $109.5 billion, currently ranks as the world’s ninth richest person. Gates and his ex-wife, Melinda French Gates, started the Gates Foundation in 2000 and have pledged billions in funding for vaccine research and development, gender equality and college scholarships. With assets of $67.3 billion as of December 2022, it is the largest private charitable foundation in the world. Last year, Gates said the foundation would likely run for just 25 more years.
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