A. M. 
Courtesy
The Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth and data.org today launch the Artificial Intelligence to Accelerate Inclusion Challenge (AI2AI Challenge). This global challenge seeks AI solutions that drive inclusion and economic empowerment.
The AI2AI Challenge focuses on inclusive growth, ensuring that all sectors of society benefit from an expanding economy. It seeks organizations with innovative, proven AI solutions that are ready to scale with additional financial and technical support.
“Five years ago, we made an early bet on the power of data to advance social impact. Those early investments laid the groundwork for the growing field of impact data science and have contributed to the demand for similar interventions for AI. Today, we are proud to work with data.org to incentivize safe and trusted AI applications that empower communities and individuals. This challenge will shed light on scalable solutions that help realize the promise and potential of AI to benefit society”, said Shamina Singh, founder and president of Mastercard’s Center for Inclusive Growth.
“In the age of AI, it is crucial that we work together across disciplines to address challenges such as inclusive growth and climate”, said Danil Mikhailov, CEO of data.org.” This is our fourth global challenge and the second in collaboration with Mastercard’s Center for Inclusive Growth. So far, we have received more than 2,000 applications from around the world. Each challenge not only expands our network of collaborators and partners, but also teaches us how to effectively build capacity, empower local communities and advance the field of data and AI for social impact”.
Those interested in participating can learn more and apply on the data.org website. The deadline for applications is july 18, 2024 at 7:00 pm ET. Subsequently, a panel of judges with expertise in AI and its social impact will review the submissions, and winners will be announced in early 2025. Confirmed judges include:
Vilas Dhar, president of the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation
Raghu Dharmaraju, CEO of ARTPARK
Ivana Feldfeber, co-founder and executive director of DataGénero
Angela Oduor Lungati, Executive Director of Ushahidi
Anna Makanju, Vice President of Global Affairs at OpenAI
Alondra Nelson, Harold F. Linder Professor at the Institute for Advanced Study
Navrina Singh, founder and CEO of Credo AI
Uyi Stewart, Director of Data and Technology at data.org
Greg Ulrich, global head of AI and Data at Mastercard
Challenge winners will receive funding to develop and scale their solutions, access to technical expertise and mentorship from Mastercard and data.org. In addition, they will have opportunities with select Mastercard resources and programs, such as Start Path, to further support their approaches.
The challenge was initially announced by Singh at the Global Inclusive Growth Summit on April 18, 2024. Today, the AI Challenge to Accelerate Inclusion launches during the Accelerate Conference: the data for social impact conference, organized by data.org in collaboration with the Harvard Data Science Initiative.
