Google announces $1mn grant for Indian NGO to help low-income communities to learn & use AI

Google.org, the philanthropic branch of Google, has awarded a generous $1 million grant to Karya, a non-profit organisation dedicated to empowering low-income communities by connecting them to learning and earning opportunities powered by artificial intelligence (AI).

This funding will fuel Karya’s ongoing mission to help tens of thousands of people access paid digital tasks, especially those that can be performed using a Generative AI-driven multilingual chatbot.

Designed for users with limited digital literacy, the chatbot will make complex tasks, such as data annotation and feedback provision, easier to handle through smartphones, all while supporting the development of AI models in local languages.

This latest grant is part of Google’s broader push to prepare India’s workforce for an AI-driven future. At the 10th edition of Google for India, held last month, Google unveiled several initiatives. These included the launch of AI Skills House, which aims to provide AI training to 10 million Indians, and a $4 million grant to Central Square Foundation to educate five million students, teachers, and parents about the responsible and meaningful use of AI.

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The company emphasised its vision of technology as a force for opportunity, one that should be accessible and beneficial to everyone, no matter their background.

Karya has ambitious plans for how to use this support. The non-profit will design a comprehensive digital skilling pathway, built on a research-driven curriculum and experience-based assessment framework, translating it into ten major Indic languages. By leveraging Generative AI, Karya will also create a multilingual chatbot to offer real-time assistance on its app and web platforms.

This will enable people across varying levels of digital proficiency to engage in AI-related tasks, unlocking new income opportunities in languages they are comfortable with. The chatbot isn’t just confined to India.

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Karya is working on making this tool accessible to partner organisations in Africa, with early research and trials already taking place in Ethiopia, where it supports local language tasks like Amharic.

In keeping with its mission of broad impact, Karya plans to make the digital skilling framework and its chatbot development research freely available. This will allow developers, non-profits, government agencies, and worker collectives to build further solutions that democratise digital work access, opening up new income streams for communities worldwide. Karya envisions a world where low-income populations aren’t just passive beneficiaries of AI but active contributors and creators, laying an ethical foundation for an AI-enabled future.

Karya’s efforts aren’t just theoretical. Over the past two years, the non-profit has empowered more than 50,000 people in rural India, a staggering 90 per cent of whom come from marginalised communities.

These individuals have been engaged in high-value digital tasks like data annotation, which have substantially increased their household incomes. Remarkably, Karya’s workers, armed with just smartphones, can earn up to 20 times the local minimum wage.

The ultimate goal is not just economic upliftment but also a significant contribution to poverty alleviation in India and beyond.

This impactful work is part of a larger narrative about AI’s transformative potential, a theme Google has been vocal about. The tech giant recently highlighted the role AI can play in propelling economic growth and fostering inclusive development in its report, An AI Opportunity Agenda for India.

The report outlines how India, with its rich tech talent and dynamic startup ecosystem, can maximise AI’s capabilities for national and global advancement.

Google’s commitment to global AI education isn’t stopping there. At the United Nations 79th General Assembly in September 2024, CEO Sundar Pichai announced the $120 Million Global AI Opportunity Fund.

This fund aims to partner with NGOs and nonprofits worldwide to make AI training accessible in local languages, empowering underserved communities to thrive in an AI-driven future.

With efforts like these, Google continues to demonstrate its dedication to using AI for good, ensuring that its benefits are distributed widely and equitably, creating new opportunities and uplifting lives around the world.