Mastercard Centre for Inclusive Growth and data.org launch ‘Artificial Intelligence to Accelerate Inclusion Challenge’

• Global call issued for innovative AI solutions at inaugural accelerate conference

The Mastercard Centre for Inclusive Growth and data.org last week 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. Organisations will be considered for their innovative AI solutions that have demonstrated success and are ready to scale with additional funding and technical assistance.

“Five years ago, we made an early bet on the power of data to advance social impact,” said Mastercard Centre for Inclusive Growth Founder and President Shamina Singh. “Those early investments laid a 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.”

“In the age of AI, working collaboratively across disciplines to tackle challenges like inclusive growth and climate has never been more urgent,” said data.org Executive Director Danil Mikhailov. “This is data.org’s fourth global challenge — and second with Mastercard’s Centre 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.”

Challenge applicants can learn more and apply on the data.org website. The deadline for submissions is 18 July 2024, at 7 p.m. ET, after which a panel of distinguished expert judges bringing experience in AI at the frontier of social impact and industry will review submissions, with winners announced by early 2025. 

Confirmed judges include: Patrick J. McGovern Foundation President Vilas Dhar; ARTPARK CEO Raghu Dharmaraju; DataGenéro Co-founder and Executive Director Ivana Feldfeber; Ushahidi Executive Director Angela Oduor Lungati;. OpenAI Vice President of Global Affairs Anna Makanju; Alondra Nelson, Harold F. Linder Professor, Institute for Advanced Study; Dasra Co-founder and Managing Partner Neera Nundy; Credo AI Founder and CEO Navrina Singh; data.org Chief Data and Technology Officer Uyi Stewart and Mastercard Chief AI and Data Officer Greg Ulrich.

Challenge awardees will receive grant funding to develop and scale their solutions, access to technical expertise and mentorship from Mastercard and data.org teams, and opportunities with select Mastercard’s resources and programs, such as Start Path, to further support their approaches. Additional support for the challenge will come from Dasra, a strategic philanthropy foundation based in India.

The challenge was first announced by Singh at the Global Inclusive Growth Summit on 18 April 2024.