The Gates Foundation and OpenAI announced on Wednesday they’re committing up to $50 million in combined funding, technology, and technical support to advance the use of artificial intelligence in health systems across Africa through a new, country-led venture called Horizon1000. Through it, they will work in 1,000 primary health care clinics by 2028. The first country to launch is Rwanda — with Kenya, South Africa, and Nigeria to follow.
Bill Gates joined Paula Ingabire, Rwanda’s minister of information and communications technology, and Peter Sands, the executive director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, for a conversation at the World Economic Forum to elaborate on the new commitment and, more broadly, what they see as the most promising roles AI can play in delivering health care in low-resource settings.
The experts said they believe that fast adoption of AI for health care in low- and middle-income countries could end up leapfrogging its use in wealthier countries.