Like different know-how breakthroughs, AI presents monumental alternatives to reimagine options to the world’s urgent challenges. Nevertheless, to harness AI’s energy and potential successfully, we should work collectively to make sure it’s used ethically, responsibly, and inclusively.
As a pure extension of our work to assist shut the information divide, Splunk is partnering throughout sectors on utilizing AI for good. We’re thrilled to rely Quick Ahead, a company centered on scaling tech nonprofits, as a deeply valued companion in that work. For a few years, we’ve shared a dedication to empowering tech nonprofits, with an growing give attention to the impactful, AI-powered nonprofits that make up the rising AI for Humanity motion.
Splunk is proud to assist Quick Ahead’s Startup Accelerator and different key applications by way of grantmaking and skills-based volunteering, with Splunkers offering suggestions and experience to Accelerator portfolio organizations. Splunk’s strategic grantees embody seven alums of Quick Ahead’s Accelerator, one more method we companion to assist promising tech nonprofits scale. We’re excited to spotlight two of these excellent organizations: Closegap and Ersilia.
“AI-powered nonprofits are proving that AI can function a power for good throughout well being, local weather, and training. With companions like Splunk, we will speed up this motion—supporting tech-driven options designed with humanity at their core.”
—Kevin Barenblat, co-founder of Quick Ahead
Utilizing AI to Establish Crises and Facilitate Significant Connection
The youth psychological well being disaster has intensified over the previous decade; but with college counseling departments understaffed and overwhelmed, many younger folks slip by way of the cracks. Right now, the typical delay between the onset of psychological well being wants and intervention is 11 years.
Closegap is on a mission to enhance the psychological well being of Okay-12 college students by equipping colleges with free, enjoyable, and interactive psychological well being check-ins.
College students reply a collection of questions on their feelings, vitality stage, and bodily wants, and the responses are organized and delivered to workers to permit for real-time intervention. These check-ins have uncovered points from gentle to severe; they’ve helped forestall suicides and uncover instances of self-harm, assault, and bullying. Closegap has served over 300,000 college students in all 50 states, with over 9 million check-ins.
AI helps Closegap additional enhance its effectiveness and attain. Closegap is utilizing deep studying strategies that enhance the triage and classification of pupil wants, serving to workers reply to college students quicker. It’s additionally utilizing massive language fashions (LLMs) to supply disaster alerts and generate messages to college students who want to communicate to an grownup. These enhancements imply college workers can attain extra college students, do it quicker, and guarantee college students get the assist they want after they want it.
Finally, Closegap seeks to not solely assist educators reply to college students in disaster but additionally deal with underlying points college students face, like stress and arguments with friends and oldsters. By following up after check-ins, educators and college students construct sturdy relationships rooted in empathy and belief, which improve psychological well-being and more healthy college communities.
Reworking Drug Discovery in Africa with AI/ML Know-how
Africa faces a staggering burden of communicable ailments, exacerbated by restricted healthcare infrastructure and an underfunded drug improvement ecosystem. Recognizing this problem, Splunk social influence companion Ersilia, by way of its Open Supply Initiative, is revolutionizing the struggle towards infectious ailments by equipping African scientists with cutting-edge AI/ML instruments whereas fostering a sustainable well being analysis ecosystem.
Leveraging Splunk’s know-how, funding, and expert worker experience, Ersilia has made vital strides in enhancing drug discovery and empowering native researchers. Splunk’s assist has been instrumental in enabling Ersilia to streamline knowledge ingestion and analytics, saving over 700 hours of guide work yearly. This partnership has led to a 10x enchancment in antimalarial drug candidate discovery and facilitated the coaching of over 150 scientists, together with by way of workshops just like the “AI for Drug Discovery” occasion in Ghana.
Central to this collaboration is the Ersilia Mannequin Hub, an open-source platform providing low-code entry to pre-trained AI/ML fashions tailor-made for uncared for and infectious illness analysis. Splunk’s contributions have enhanced the Hub’s monitoring and analytics capabilities, enabling Ersilia to trace mannequin utilization and enhance efficiency throughout its four-phase deployment plan—from inside monitoring to native deployment in low-resourced settings within the International South.
Ersilia’s influence extends internationally, fostering partnerships throughout Africa, South America, and past, with organizations just like the H3D Centre in Cape City and the College of Buea in Cameroon. With Splunk’s assist, Ersilia is advancing its mission to shut the information divide, democratize entry to AI applied sciences, and empower Africa-led scientific analysis to deal with international well being inequities.
Working Collectively for a Human-Centered Future
Each nonprofits exemplify the extraordinary good that may end result when cutting-edge AI permits innovation. Many social influence organizations are racing to leverage the transformative energy of AI, however Quick Ahead’s Kevin Barenblat reminds us that the kind of tech-fueled success loved by Closegap and Ersilia hardly ever occurs in a vacuum.
“We’re seeing a surge in nonprofits utilizing AI to sort out international points,” he notes. “However constructing sustainable, impactful options takes assist. By partnering with AI-driven nonprofits, extra firms may be a part of making a human-centered future.”
To study extra, go to Quick Ahead’s web site to dive deeper into its Accelerator and different assets for nonprofits.
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