(MENAFN- KNN India)
New Delhi, Nov 13 (KNN) Google, the philanthropic arm of tech giant Google, has announced a USD 1 million grant to Karya, a non-profit AI startup dedicated to providing employment opportunities in rural areas.
The funding will help Karya expand its mission of enhancing local AI models through data annotation jobs, while also supporting the development of a multilingual AI chatbot aimed at assisting digital workers across the Global South.
Karya, which has already made strides in rural India, has provided employment to over 50,000 people in the last two years, with 90 per cent of workers hailing from marginalised communities.
The startup offers data annotation jobs, including tasks like building speech datasets in regional languages and annotating text, images, and video datasets. These roles allow workers to earn up to 20 times the local minimum wage while simultaneously gaining valuable digital skills.
“Low-income communities are not only excellent beneficiaries of AI, but also vital contributors to its development. We aim to provide both earning and learning opportunities, empowering workers to build their futures through meaningful digital work,” said Manu Chopra, co-founder and CEO of Karya.
The startup's impact has already reached over 100,000 people, and Karya is on track to expand its reach further by the end of this year. A prototype of Karya's AI chatbot, already in use in Ethiopia, aims to make digital work more accessible to individuals in underserved regions.
Alex Diaz, head of AI for Social Good at Google, expressed enthusiasm about the collaboration, saying,“We are proud to support Karya's commitment to bringing AI opportunities to underserved communities, ensuring the benefits of this transformative technology are accessible to all.”
This partnership reflects Google's broader efforts to promote AI literacy and economic inclusion, building on initiatives like the USD 4 million grant to the Central Square Foundation, which aims to train millions in India.
(KNN Bureau)
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