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At an AI Summit at the United Nations earlier today, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced $100 million in funding and private sector commitments in partnership with USAID to help expand the reach of artificial intelligence technologies worldwide. Secretary Blinken was joined by executives from OpenAI, NVIDIA, Amazon, Microsoft, IBM, Anthropic, Jacaranda Health, Google and Meta, who announced their firms' initiatives to spread the use of AI across the globe to ensure communities all over the world can benefit from the technology that has taken Wall Street and the broader tech sector by storm since 2022.
OpenAI Announces OpenAI Academy To Enable Developers In Developing Nations Access To Latest AI Tools
Secretary Blinken made the announcement as part of the State Department's Partnership of Global Inclusivity on AI, which aims to give "more people, in more places, the power to unleash opportunities" offered by AI. AI data centers, which sit at the heart of training models such as OpenAI's ChatGPT, require billions of dollars in data center investments which often makes them out of reach for resource constrained organizations.
Blinken shared that inclusivity will aid the effectiveness of AI in helping humanity solve challenges such as "rising temperatures, deadly viruses. . .food insecurity," which makes making AI inclusive "not an act of generosity" but an act that is "our national interest, and in the interest of our firms, of our entrepreneurs, of our investors."
The new partnership will focus on AI computing, capacity, and context, as outlined by Blinken. Investments in computing will enable developers in mid and low income countries to develop AI models and applications that are attuned to local needs. AI capacity investments will enable countries to "genuinely build capacity" to enable more people to "use and adapt AI tools." Finally, on the contextual front, he added that it will enable localized solutions to cater to localized data sets.
As for the funding, Blinken revealed that his department and USAID "will spend $33 million in US foreign assistance on AI development." Out of these, $10 million will be spent on expanding access. Additionally, Congress will provide $23 million "for programs to provide $23 million for programs to build on our efforts to develop safe, reliable, trustworthy AI governance frameworks. Use AI to advance human rights and development priorities, and promote educational and cultural exchanges on AI related topics." In total, the commitments under the public private partnership will total $100 million, according to Blinken.
Later, during the event, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman announced that his firm is launching the OpenAI academy, which will provide developers and organizations in low and middle income countries with access to and training for OpenAI's technologies. Microsoft's President Brad Smith shared that his company has committed to spending over $12 billion to build AI data centers in Latin America, Southeast Asia, and Africa. Microsoft will also provide $500 million in free access to more than 30,000 nonprofits in the Global South, Smith added.
Google's senior VP of technology and society, James Manyika, shared that his firm plans to increase support for Google Translate to over 1,000 languages soon. Google deploying AI enabled flood forecasting tools to cover nearly half a billion people worldwide.
Meta's vice president of AI research, Joelle Pineau, stated that Meta will invest more than $10 million in support for open source AI innovation in 2024 and 2025 to increase AI access to communities in Latin America, Africa and Asia. NVIDIA's vice president and global head of government affairs, Ned Finkle, outlined that his firm is committing $10 million a year to up skill AI developers in emerging countries under its partnership with the State Department.
About the author: Ramish is a seasoned technology writer and editor with more than a decade of experience. He specializes in semiconductor fabrication and market analysis. With a background in finance and supply chain management - via his bachelors in Finance and a micromasters in supply chain management from MIT - Ramish combines financial rigor with deep industry insight to deliver accurate and authoritative coverage.
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