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Partner2Connect and AI for Good Announce $1.76 Billion Pledged for AI-Driven Internet Access and Adoption Solutions at the AI for Good Global Summit

Global Summit | Inclusivity

At the AI for Good Global Summit in Geneva, Partner2Connect and AI for Good announced the outcomes of their pledge drive launched by the ITU Secretary-General earlier this year.

Seven organizations from across diverse sectors including Governments, United Nations, Industry and NGOs committed a total of $1.76 billion to promote digital inclusion, particularly for people with disabilities, young girls and women through AI. These commitments also aim to develop more sustainable and inclusive digital economies by promoting access to technologies through infrastructure development, upskilling and assistance.

Learn more about the AI pledges and the range of innovative projects:

The Zero Project of the Essl Foundation will promote responsible AI for global disability by analyzing disability data from over 1,500 awardees and over 120 countries. Zero Project is a $190000 investment that will also support decision-making, providing access to extensive data, and facilitating networking and matchmaking opportunities. This AI tool will also help accelerate the adoption of SDG 17 – Partnerships for the Goals.

The Skill Accelerator Pilot is a $12 million investment to empower young women aged 19-24 in AI and entrepreneurship. It also provides training, mentorship, and support to cultivate future female leaders. The program aims to fast-track young women into leadership roles, enhancing their participation in AI and promoting the adoption of digital tools.

Investment in computing infrastructure to support AI businesses and researchers in Canada through the CAD 2 billion (USD 1.46 billion) AI Compute Access Fund. Also, an additional commitment to invest CAD 400 million (USD 292 million) in the adoption of AI across Canada’s economy; help small and medium size enterprises introduce AI into their businesses; protect workers with skills development; and to create a new Canadian AI Safe Institute to help Canada better understand and protect against the risks of advanced AI systems.

Chat GPT for visually impaired. Today, hundreds of millions of people live with some form of visual disability. Vision impairment profoundly impacts individuals, as over 80% of our perception, cognition, learning, and daily activities are mediated through vision. Despite rapid advancements in Artificial Intelligence (AI), visually impaired and blind individuals face significant challenges in work and education due to the inaccessibility of AI technologies. This assistive mobile app will allow visually impaired users to interact with ChatGPT via natural conversation including Assisted Speech Recognition (ASR), Text-To-Speech (TTS), Keyword Spotting (KWS), Voice Activity Detection (VAD), and a user-friendly User Interface (UI) for seamless ChatGPT interaction. The source code, pre-trained models, and UI are publicly available to encourage the development of assistive mobile applications.

Scaling AI across the lived experience of disability. Addressing data deserts—areas lacking representation in data—is a key priority to develop accessible AI solutions for over 1 billion people with disabilities. Microsoft Accessibility Program supports projects and prioritizes partnerships to rapidly accelerate how people with disabilities are included in and represented by the systems, designs and features of technology, including AI. Microsoft is a P2C Champion and this pledge raises to five the total number of their P2C commitments.

ProjectUs.ai leverages AI and biosignal processing to help people develop emotional-intelligence skills, including self-awareness, effective communication and empathy. It uses machine learning to analyze interlocutors’ biosignals (e.g., choice of words, tone of voice, body language, etc.) during conversations, and feeds the emotional content and actionable feedback back in real time and through multiple analyses.

ProjectUs.ai helps organizations become more cohesive, creative and competitive and acts as a platform to facilitate inclusion in the online space, by significantly reducing the cost of personalized feedback in the workplace.

ZTE

ZTE pledges to collaborate with over 1,000 global partners across various industry verticals to explore the boundaries of AI, with the aim of empowering the sustainable and inclusive development of the digital economy. By nurturing a thriving ecosystem of AI initiatives globally, ZTE aims to drive AI-enabled digital transformation that can generate immense societal benefits and economic opportunities, paving the way for a more connected, intelligent, and sustainable world. ZTE is a P2C Champion and this pledge raises to four the total number of their P2C commitments.

Partner2Connect and AI for Good congratulate these trailblazers for their bold and significant contributions and look forward to seeing how these commitments will evolve and yield results through the Partner2Connect platform.

Click here to submit a pledge.

Click here for more information about the AI for Good Global Summit.