The Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth, in collaboration with data.org, has launched the Artificial Intelligence to Accelerate Inclusion Challenge (AI2AI Challenge), a global call for AI solutions to accelerate inclusion and economic empowerment.

The AI2AI Challenge will focus on inclusive growth, ensuring that the benefits of this rapidly advancing data technology extend to all segments of society.

“Five years ago, we made an early bet on the power of data to advance social impact. Those early investments laid the foundation for the growing field of impact data science and have contributed to the demand for similar interventions for AI. Today, we are proud to be working with data.org to incentivise safe and trustworthy AI applications that empower communities and people. This challenge will shine a light on scalable solutions that help realise the promise and potential for AI to benefit society,” said Shamina Singh, founder and president of the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth.

Meanwhile, the executive director of data.org, Danil Mikhailov, said: “In the age of AI, working collaboratively across disciplines to tackle challenges like inclusive growth and climate change has never been more urgent. This is data.org’s fourth global challenge—and second with Mastercard’s Center for Inclusive Growth—to source, support, and scale breakthrough solutions, with more than 2,000 applications worldwide submitted to date. With each challenge, we not only grow our network of peers and partners, but we also learn more about how to most effectively build capacity, empower local communities, and ultimately build the field of data and AI for social impact.”

Organisations will be considered for their innovative AI solutions that have demonstrated success and are ready to scale with additional funding and technical assistance.

Interested applicants can learn more and apply on the data.org website. The deadline for submissions is 18 July 2024 at 7:00 pm ET. A panel of expert judges will review submissions and announce the winners by early 2025.