- Anthropic and the Gates Foundation committed $200 million to AI projects.
- Partnership will support AI work in language, health, and agriculture.
Anthropic and the Gates Foundation have committed $200 million over four years to support artificial intelligence projects in health and agriculture.
The partnership was announced on Thursday. Reuters reported that Anthropic’s share will come through technical staff support and use credits for Claude, its AI system.
The Gates Foundation will contribute grant funding, programme design, and subject-matter expertise. The foundation said the commitment will also support shared public goods, including datasets and infrastructure.
The announcement follows a separate $50 million agreement between the Gates Foundation and OpenAI in January. That partnership, called Horizon 1000, aims to provide funding and technical support for 1,000 healthcare clinics in African countries by 2028.
The Anthropic partnership is focused on AI tools and resources for low- and middle-income countries, as well as under-served communities in the US. The foundation said the work will involve governments and public-sector partners.
It will also involve health workers, teachers, policy makers, and farmers. Janet Zhou, a director at the Gates Foundation, said the public-goods focus reflects input from partners and governments, including concerns over proprietary lock-in and sovereignty.
Language access
One focus area is language accessibility. Zhou said AI systems have struggled with writing and translation in dozens of African languages. The partners plan to support data collection and labelling for these languages. The resulting datasets are expected to be released publicly.
Health research and disease data
Health research is another part of the four-year commitment. One initiative will help research centres use Claude to predict drug candidates for HPV and preeclampsia. The Gates Foundation said the health work will also cover childhood vaccines and cervical cancer prevention and treatment. It will also include tools for researchers and public health officials working with large health datasets.
Forbes reported that the health work includes the use of Claude to develop therapies for polio, HPV, and preeclampsia. WHO estimates that cervical cancer caused about 350,000 deaths in 2022, with around 94% of those deaths occurring in low- and middle-income countries.
The partnership will also support data systems used to track disease and health trends. This includes work with the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation on the Global Burden of Disease study, as well as projects with governments.
IHME says the Global Burden of Disease study includes more than 607 billion standardised estimates covering health outcomes and health systems.
Education tools
The partnership is also considering the release of knowledge graphs for education. Zhou said these resources are being considered for teacher-focused AI systems in sub-Saharan Africa and India.
Knowledge graphs organise information by mapping relationships between concepts and entities, including curriculum content and teaching materials.
The Gates Foundation said education work will also focus on tools that help teachers identify learning gaps earlier. Forbes reported that the education work will include AI-powered apps for literacy, as well as tools for curriculum design and college advising.
The foundation blog said the education work will also include AI-enabled college and career navigation. It said the effort will focus on infrastructure that supports learners through education and into the workforce.
Agriculture tools
In agriculture, the partners plan to support AI tools that use local data and local languages. These tools are intended to provide guidance based on local conditions.
Forbes reported that the partnership will include agriculture-specific improvements to Claude, including support for planting decisions. The foundation said these tools could also cover soil health, crop disease, and livestock care.
They could also provide information on market conditions. A World Bank paper cites an estimate that 510 million farms under two hectares contribute roughly 35% of global food output.
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