Google.org, the philanthropic arm of tech giant Google, has announced a $1 million grant to Karya, a non-profit AI startup dedicated to providing employment opportunities in rural areas.
The funding will be used to enhance its local AI models through data annotation jobs, while also supporting the development of a multilingual AI chatbot aimed at assisting digital workers across the Global South.
“Our goal at Karya is to lay down an ethical foundation for an AI-enabled future. AI may generate hundreds of billions of dollars in economic value, but the question we ask is—how much of that can we put directly into the hands of people who need it most? At Karya, we believe that low-income communities around the world are not only excellent beneficiaries of AI, but they are also excellent builders of AI. We want to use AI to bring earning and learning opportunities to low-income communities across the Global South,” said Manu Chopra, Co-founder and CEO, of Karya.
“At Google.org, we’re committed to seeing the transformative power of technology bring opportunity within everyone’s grasp. And with AI the most potent present-day force reshaping the global economy, we are bringing our resources and capabilities to ensure that the opportunities it unlocks are rewarding for everyone, regardless of their background or circumstance. We’ve been deeply encouraged to see Karya share this commitment, and are now proud to support its new chapter in nurturing both aptitude and appetite as it brings AI opportunities to underserved communities, and helps ensure the benefits of this revolutionary technology are truly universal,” said Alex Diaz, Head of AI for Social Good, Google.org.
Karya, which has already made strides in rural India, has provided employment to over 50,000 people in the last two years, with 90 per cent of workers hailing from marginalised communities.
The startup’s impact has already reached over 100,000 people, and Karya is on track to expand its reach further by the end of this year. A prototype of Karya’s AI chatbot, already in use in Ethiopia, aims to make digital work more accessible to individuals in underserved regions.
The startup offers data annotation jobs, including tasks like building speech datasets in regional languages and annotating text, images, and video datasets. These roles allow workers to earn up to 20 times the local minimum wage while simultaneously gaining valuable digital skills.
