6 hrs ago
Bill Gates Urges Smart AI Use as Language Coalition Expands
Bill Gates says AI could help people around the world if it is used carefully and fairly.
He also wants wealthy countries to provide more aid to poorer countries.
His foundation announced a group of 60 organizations working to improve AI in languages that are often overlooked.
The group hopes to reach more than 3 billion people over five years.
Better language data could help doctors, teachers and farmers use AI more effectively.
Poor language data can cause AI to misunderstand important messages, such as a medical warning from a pregnant woman.
Some experts say communities should control how their language and cultural information is collected.
Leaders also say governments need to manage risks involving cybersecurity and children.
The foundation plans to spend $1 billion on AI projects in health, education and farming.
Bill Gates called for more international aid and the smart use of AI to fight inequality and support lifesaving innovations.
The Gates Foundation announced a 60-member coalition to expand AI access in underrepresented languages and reach more than 3 billion people within five years.
The foundation committed $1 billion to AI-focused efforts involving health, education and small-scale farming.
Speakers warned that internet-based training data can mistranslate or misrepresent languages and cultures, especially in underserved communities.
Google, Anthropic and other partners are collecting local speech and agricultural data while governments are urged to address risks including cybersecurity and children’s development.
- Who
- Bill Gates, the Gates Foundation, and a coalition of 60 organizations, including Google and Anthropic.
- What
- They promoted careful AI use and announced efforts to build more representative language data for underserved languages.
- Where
- The event took place at Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York.
- When
- The announcement was made at the Gates Foundation’s annual Goalkeepers gathering on Monday; the coalition’s target is to work over five years.
- Why
- The effort aims to reduce inequality and make AI useful for people in communities currently underserved or excluded from the technology.
Expand AI for Humanitarian Uses
Slow or Regulate AI Development
Development speed
Expand AI for Humanitarian Uses
The Gates Foundation says AI work should continue at full speed so underserved communities can benefit from health, education and farming applications.
Slow or Regulate AI Development
Some major AI companies have called for slowing the development of advanced models, while Gates and foundation officials acknowledge the need to manage potential harms.
Language-data collection
Expand AI for Humanitarian Uses
The coalition supports coordinating efforts to build language and speech datasets so AI tools work for more people and dialects.
Slow or Regulate AI Development
Data advocates argue that communities should upload cultural and linguistic information on their own terms rather than have it scraped from the internet without explicit consent.
Key facts
- Coalition size
- 60 organizations
- Intended reach
- More than 3 billion people over five years
- Foundation commitment
- $1 billion for AI-focused health, education and farming efforts
- Development aid trend
- 26 of the world’s 34 wealthiest nations reduced development aid to poorer countries last year
- Google data project
- Project Vaani is collecting more than 150,000 hours of audio across every district in India
- Key risks cited
- Cybersecurity, children’s development, and unrepresentative language data
Quotes
Mark Suzman
CEO of the Gates Foundation
“Even if AI was frozen right now — which I don't expect and I am not calling for — we would want to be building these language sets and making them usable with the tools that we have available right now.”
thehansindia.com
“We failed to build in the right human values and ways of keeping our moral code controlling what these AIs do”
thehansindia.com
E.M. Lewis-Jong
CEO of Mozilla Data Collective
“The internet is not a representative space. Why would you think that you were going to get a culturally diverse and representative system out of something that was predominantly trained on Reddit?”
thehansindia.com
Sources
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