AI for Social Good: Google supports six research projects across Asia

Apart from supporting the projects, Google researchers, engineers, and program managers will also provide each team with funding and computational resources.

Google announced today that the company is kicking off support for six research projects led by organizations from India and across Asia. For each project, ranging from healthcare to education, leading academic AI researchers and a nonprofit organization with expertise in the respective area will collaborate to address societal, humanitarian and environmental challenges using Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Apart from supporting these projects, Google researchers, engineers, and program managers will also provide each team with funding and computational resources. 

Here are the six research projects the search giant will be supporting over the coming months:

• Improving health information for high HIV/AIDS risk communities

Applying AI to identify influencers among marginalized communities at high risk of HIV/AIDS contraction, with the goal of better-disseminating health information, providing services, and ultimately reducing the rate of HIV contraction. 

Academic researchers: Team from IIIT Delhi led by Tavpritesh Sethi and a team from Singapore Management University led by Pradeep Varakantham

Nonprofit Org: Swasti, an NPO dedicated to innovating solutions to solve pressing challenges in public health

• Predicting risks for expectant mothers

Using AI to predict the risk of expectant mothers dropping out of healthcare programs, to improve targeted interventions and increase positive healthcare outcomes for mothers and their babies. 

Academic researchers: Team from IIT Madras led by Balaraman Ravindran

Nonprofit Org: Armman, an India-based NPO that leverages technology to create scalable solutions to empower pregnant mothers, newborn infants, and children, whilst simultaneously addressing systemic gaps in health service delivery

• Improving consistency of healthcare information input

Applying AI to help ensure consistency in how healthcare information is captured and monitored, to enable more targeted and actionable healthcare interventions.

Academic researchers: Team from Singapore Management University led by Arunesh Sinha

Nonprofit Org: Khushibaby, a non-profit organization dedicated to motivating and monitoring the health care of mothers and children to the last mile

• Predicting human-wildlife conflict

Using AI to predict human-wildlife conflict in the state of Maharashtra to help inform data-driven policymaking. 

Academic researchers: Team from Singapore Management University led by Pradeep Varakantham

Nonprofit Org: Wildlife Conservation Trust (WCT), an Indian non-governmental organization focused on strengthening sustainable ecosystems that will continue to serve wildlife and communities in the long-term.

• Improving dam and barrage water release

Using AI to inform dam and barrage water releases, to help build early warning systems that minimize the risk of disasters. 

Academic researchers: Team of Nanyang Technology University led by Bo An

Nonprofit Org: Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology & The Environment (ATREE),  a global non-profit organization that generates interdisciplinary knowledge to inform policy and practice towards conservation and sustainability.

• Supporting publishing of underserved Indian language content

Building open-source input tools for underserved Indian languages to accelerate the publishing of openly licensed content. 

Academic researchers: Team from AI4Bharat and IIT Madras led by Mitesh Khapra and Pratyush Kumar

Nonprofit Org: Storyweaver, a first-of-its-kind digital repository that provides easy-to-use tools to read, create, adapt, and translate new stories for children in their mother tongue.

"Healthcare, conservation, education, and disaster prediction are some of the most difficult challenges of our time. As computer scientists, it’s incredibly humbling and exciting to partner with the community towards making a positive impact for people in India and around the world," Manish Gupta, Director, Google Research Team in India and Milind Tambe, Director AI for Social Good, Google Research Team, India wrote in a blog post.