The philanthropic arm of Google has committed to giving a US$ 1 million donation to the non-profit AI start-up Karya and is making contributions to change the face of opportunities for working digitally available in rural areas. In return for this precious feedback that targets enhancing prospects of language capabilities by local models of AI, Karya allows people from unprivileged communities to gain access to the burgeoning AI industry. Apart from that, Karya will work towards its long-term vision by creating a multilingual AI chatbot that promotes digital working and hence maximizes its potential to touch an individual’s life.
Empowering Rural Communities Through AI Work
The startup’s press release announcing the grant stated that Karya’s prototype AI chatbot has already been in use in Ethiopia. This marks one of the important developments for this startup. Since its inception two years ago, Karya has touched the lives of over 50,000 in rural India, 90% of whom belong to the most marginalized groups. Jobs of data annotation by Karya have a real impact on people’s lives because economic opportunities help them earn above the minimum wage standards of a region.
Low-income communities across the world are not only consumers of AI but also major players contributing to AI’s development, said Manu Chopra, cofounder and CEO at Karya. That is short for “At Karya, we are using AI to unlock opportunities for earning and learning for people in the Global South, which empowers them to take control of their future.” Karya’s Role in AI Development
Karya’s Role in AI Development
Contribution from the rural employee. Karya workers are helping build foundational speech datasets in local Indic languages, checking huge language models (LLMs), and annotating text, image, and video datasets. Tasks such as these are of the utmost importance for the development of AI technologies across the world. Employees carry out such work on their mobile phones, making work more flexible and digital, while changing their lives as they acquire skills that reposition them for future opportunities.
That is, workers are paid as much as 20 times the local minimum wage, getting experience with cutting-edge technology building for the digital economy.
Partnership for a Future of AI
The news comes that Google.org has granted a grant to Karya in the context of the bigger initiative launched by Google during its “Google for India” event. Google has committed to training 10 million Indians in AI. Moreover, it is also doing so through a grant worth $4 million to the Central Square Foundation for the AI training of 5 million students, teachers, and parents. As Alex Diaz, Head of AI for Social Good at Google.org puts it, initiatives such as Karya are precious: “We are proud to support Karya’s efforts in bringing AI opportunities to underserved communities, ensuring that the benefits of this transformative technology are truly universal.”
Having Google.org support Karya, all signs are that the latter will exponentially affect millions of users in lower-income communities to avail opportunities through AI. Hopefully, this shall change the face of digital work and the development of technology toward a better future.
