Data.org together with Microsoft announced five winners of the Generative AI Skills Challenge, a global grant to explore, develop, and implement ways for organizations to train, upskill, and reskill the workforce to use generative AI. Myna Mahila Foundation, an Indian organisation, was among the five winners — chosen from a pool of nearly 600 applicants across 93 countries.
Myna Mahila Foundation’s project will build on their successful training model for a network of 1,500 women, known as RANI workers. This project will train a portion of the network in generative AI to power a text-based AI platform designed to dispel misconceptions around women’s health. The organization will establish a feedback loop process that includes doctors and medical professionals to ensure that responses combating misconceptions are accurate.
The other four winners are: Global Integrated Education Volunteers Association (GIEVA), Nigeria; The Tipping Point, Greece; Data Elevates, Chile; and Mississippi Coding Academies – United States.
Each of the winning organizations will receive $250,000 to train professionals with the skills necessary to successfully utilize generative AI in an equitable and interdisciplinary way.
The winning proposals represent a variety of locally-driven solutions that have the potential to scale not only across communities and countries—but across the globe. Further, vast networks of workers will benefit from these innovations, ranging from an app to upskill educators in remote settings to a platform that empowers women-led businesses to increase visibility and sales.
Awardees were evaluated in a rigorous multi-step process by a team of judges and reviewers around the world who are leaders in the fields of data science and technology, philanthropy, and education.
“The impact that these innovative projects will have on our global workforce is significant. Through our shared commitment to educating and empowering industry professionals with the skills to leverage generative AI, we are going to shape the future of data for social impact and its power to transform communities,” said Danil Mikhailov, Ph.D., executive director of data.org.
In addition to financial support, awardees will receive access to technical resources, technical guidance from Microsoft AI experts, including Microsoft’s AI for Good Lab, and data training. The EY organization plans to host capacity building workshops and coaching for awardees as part of their global efforts to strengthen the use of generative AI across impact organizations and their beneficiaries.
“AI is a powerful tool that can help solve the world’s toughest problems – but only if workers everywhere have the skills to use it,” said Kate Behncken, corporate vice president, Microsoft Philanthropies. “Generative AI itself can be a powerful tool to help revolutionize skills training and address the digital and AI skills divide, which is exactly why we’re working with data.org and these organizations – to help support innovation in this area.”
Each awardee has committed to sharing or open sourcing their work so other organizations can replicate and scale their solutions.
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