Google has announced a cumulative $37 million investment to support the advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) in Africa. According to Google Africa’s blog, the funding will be allocated to multiple initiatives aimed at expanding research, developing talent, and building infrastructure on the continent.
A substantial proportion of the funding, $25 million, will go toward the
A significant portion of the funding, $25 million, will be directed to the AI Collaborative: Food Security. This initiative supports African researchers and nonprofits building AI tools that enhance hunger forecasting, improve crop resilience, and provide smallholder farmers with real-time and actionable insights.
The Masakhane African Languages AI Hub, a new initiative designed to address the under-representation and misrepresentation of African languages in AI, will receive $3 million to expand research and open-source tools for over 40 African languages. The initiative will help ensure inclusion of African languages in the digital word. ensure that African languages.
Additionally, Google will award $1 million each to two academic institutions in South Africa: the Africa Institute for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence (AfriDSA) at the University of Pretoria and the Wits Machine Intelligence and Neural Discovery (MIND) Institute. The research funding seeks to support graduate students and postdoctoral researchers.
Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana, and South Africa will be major beneficiaries, receiving a $7 million contribution to support AI education and safety programs. In Ghana, students in higher education institutions will receive 100,000 Google Career Certificate scholarships.
Google also announced the launch of a new catalytic fund initiative to help over 100 AI-driven startups scale their solutions. The initiative brings together philanthropic funding, venture capital, and technical expertise to support founders in building relevant AI applications.
The investment builds on Google’s existing efforts in Africa, including its research teams in Accra and Nairobi, which have been working on projects such as mapping buildings from satellite imagery and developing a flood forecasting platform.
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