Google.org, Google’s charitable wing, is launching a brand new program to assist fund nonprofits growing tech that leverages generative AI.
Known as Google.org Accelerator: Generative AI, this system is to be funded by $20 million in grants and embody 21 nonprofits to start out, together with Quill.org, an organization creating AI-powered instruments for scholar writing suggestions, and World Financial institution, which is constructing a generative AI app to make growth analysis extra accessible.
Along with funding, nonprofits within the six-month accelerator program will get entry to technical coaching, workshops, mentors and steering from an “AI coach.” And, via Google.org’s fellowship program, groups of Google workers will work with three of the nonprofits — Tarjimly, Advantages Information Belief and mRelief — full-time for as much as six months to assist launch their proposed generative AI instruments.
Tarjimly goals to make use of AI to translate languages for refugees, whereas Advantages Information Belief is tapping AI to create assistants that assist caseworkers in serving to low-income candidates enroll in public advantages. mRelief, in the meantime, is designing a software to streamline the U.S. SNAP advantages utility course of.
“Generative AI can assist social affect groups be extra productive, inventive and efficient in serving their communities,” Annie Lewin, director of world advocacy at Google.org, mentioned in a blog post. “Google.org funding recipients report that AI helps them obtain their targets in a single third of the time at almost half the fee.”
In line with a PwrdBy survey, 73% of nonprofits imagine AI innovation aligns with their missions and 75% imagine AI makes their lives simpler, notably in areas like donor categorization, routine back-office duties and “mission-driven” initiatives. However there stay important limitations for nonprofits seeking to construct their very own AI options or undertake third-party merchandise — mainly price, assets and time.
Within the weblog put up, Lewin cites a Google.org survey that equally discovered that, whereas 4 in 5 nonprofits suppose generative AI could also be relevant to their work, almost half at present aren’t utilizing the tech because of a variety of inside and exterior roadblocks. “[These nonprofits] cite a scarcity of instruments, consciousness, coaching and funding as the most important limitations to adoption,” she mentioned.
Encouragingly, the variety of nonprofit AI-focused startups is starting to tick up.
Nonprofit accelerator Quick Ahead mentioned that this yr, greater than a 3rd of candidates for its newest class had been AI corporations. And Crunchbase reports that, extra broadly, dozens of nonprofit organizations throughout the globe are dedicating work round moral approaches to AI, like AI ethics lab AlgorithmWatch, digital studying clinic JoyEducation and conservation advocacy group Earth05.
