Microsoft announces AI for Humanitarian Action

Microsoft has announced the third program within its AI for Good initiative – AI for Humanitarian Action, a new US$40-million, 5-year program aimed at leveraging the power of artificial intelligence to address some of the world’s biggest humanitarian challenges.

Microsoft President Brad Smith has unveiled the program while in New York for the United Nations General Assembly, and in tandem, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has highlighted the new endeavour during his keynote address at Ignite 2018.

As part of the new program, Microsoft will work deeply with specific non-governmental and humanitarian organizations through financial grants, technology investments and partnerships that combine its AI and data science know-how with these groups’ core expertise. The four focus areas of the program include:

· Disaster response: Support the ability to anticipate, predict, and target humanitarian response efforts

· Needs of children: Ensure the safety and well-being of children

· Refugees and displaced people: Enable scalable collaboration in service of the approximate 68 million displaced people, including refugees

· Human rights: Accelerate breakthrough solutions to help monitor, detect and prevent human rights abuses

Over the past eighteen months, Microsoft has launched AI for Good programs, AI for Earth, AI for Accessibility and AI for Humanitarian Action that now encompass a US$115-million commitment to use artificial intelligence to help address some of the world’s biggest challenges. The initiative aims to empower others in new and more impactful ways, and today’s AI for Humanitarian Action news is the next step in that journey.