Gates Foundation commits $1 billion to help build and deliver equitable AI

The Gates Foundation has announced plans to spend at least US$1 billion over the next two years to expand access to artificial intelligence (AI) and AI-enabled solutions, opportunities, and knowledge. Bill Gates, chair of the Gates Foundation (Getty Images via AFP)The announcement came as the foundation launched its 10th annual Goalkeepers Report late Monday, which this year focuses on the urgent actions needed to ensure AI helps narrow gaps between the richest and poorest rather than widen them.

“The Gates Foundation was created in part to address a basic market failure: the people with the greatest needs often have the least power to shape where innovation and investment go,” said Bill Gates, chair of the Gates Foundation, in the report.

“Much of our work has been about closing that gap. AI presents the same challenge, only at much greater speed. Left to the market alone, the most capable tools will be built first for the people and institutions most able to pay for them—not necessarily for those who could benefit most.” The Goalkeepers Report identifies three areas where action now could help AI improve lives and livelihoods for more people in the years ahead: Make AI tools work in every language people speak.

More than 90% of the data used to train early large language models came from English-language sources, leaving many communities that could benefit from AI poorly represented in data on which these tools were built. Build AI tools for the contexts in which people will use them.

Effective tools require data and expertise from the places and populations they are intended to serve, with countries and communities deciding how data is managed and protected. Invest in people and access so communities can shape how AI works for them.

Doctors, farmers, teachers, and developers need opportunities to learn how to evaluate AI tools and adapt what works to their own contexts. They also need affordable access to the technology, which will require action from technology companies as well as investment from governments and philanthropy.

“Equitable access to the benefits of AI will not happen on its own. But if AI tools are built with the expertise of the end users, they can put knowledge and advice in the hands of hundreds of millions of people who have not benefited from previous technology revolutions,” said the foundation in a statement.

“We can harness AI for good. But it won’t happen by accident,” Gates said in the statement. “It requires a deliberate, specific commitment from government leaders and the companies developing the technology: to measure success not only by what AI can do for the most profitable users but by what it can do for the people who stand the most to gain.” Rhythma Kaul is the national health editor of the Hindustan Times.

She has been reporting on public health, medicine, and medical research, with a particular focus on how government decisions and health system reforms shape people’s lives. Rhythma has over 25 years of journalistic experience.

She joined Hindustan Times in 2008, and has since covered everything from pandemics and infectious diseases to cutting‑edge medical research and climate‑related health challenges. Her stories routinely track the work of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, department of pharmaceuticals, and key national health programmes, making complex medical science and policy accessible to a wide audience.

One of her prominent news breaks has been the 2012 Baby Falak case: A two-year-old brutally battered baby girl was admitted to AIIMS-Delhi with severe head injuries, multiple fractures, human bite marks, and burns. The police investigation revealed this to be a case of multi-state human-trafficking racket.

She was profiled by The Wall Street Journal for breaking this story. Rhythma holds a Master’s degree from Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi. Prior to Hindustan Times, she worked with the India Today Group. Rhythma can be contacted at rhythma.kaul@hindustantimes.com.

Her X handle is @RamblingBrook.Read More