Bill Gates’ Gates Foundation and Sam Altman’s OpenAI join hands to solve ‘doctors’ problem’ in …
The Gates Foundation has partnered with OpenAI to improve healthcare conditions in Africa. Under this partnership, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates‘ philanthropic organisation and the Sam Altman-led ChatGPT-maker are launching a $50 million initiative to deploy artificial intelligence (AI) technology across 1,000 primary healthcare clinics in Africa by 2028, beginning with Rwanda.The collaboration, called Horizon1000, aims to address critical healthcare workforce shortages by helping African countries integrate AI into their health systems. The partnership will provide funding, technology, and technical support to governments pioneering AI deployment in health care.The initiative represents a major effort to leverage AI in solving the continent’s “doctors’ problem,” which is the shortage of medical professionals, by working directly with local leaders over the next several years to implement these technologies at the community level.
What Bill Gates said about the new OpenAI partnership in Africa
In a blog post, the Gates Foundation wrote: “The Gates Foundation and OpenAI are announcing an initiative called Horizon1000 to support several countries in Africa, starting in Rwanda, as they apply AI technology to improve their health care systems.Over the next few years, we will collaborate with leaders in African countries as they pioneer the deployment of AI in health. Together, the Gates Foundation and OpenAI are committing $50 million in funding, technology, and technical support to back their work. The goal is to reach 1,000 primary healthcare clinics and their surrounding communities by 2028.”The Gates Foundation has already started several AI projects, while Rwanda opened an AI health centre in Kigali last year. Horizon1000 plans to reach 1,000 primary health clinics and the communities around them in multiple countries by 2028, Gates said.This launch comes as many poorer countries are dealing with significant cuts to aid funding from other nations. Gates said in December that these cuts had led to the first increase in preventable child deaths in over 100 years.AI could be especially helpful in countries that don’t have enough trained doctors and nurses, Gates said. He pointed out that sub-Saharan Africa needs about six million more healthcare workers.
What Bill Gates said about how AI can solve the ‘doctors’ problem in Africa
In the blog post, Gates wrote: “In Sub-Saharan Africa, which suffers from the world’s highest child mortality rate, there is a shortfall of nearly 6 million health care workers, a gap so large that even the most aggressive hiring and training efforts can’t close it in the foreseeable future. These huge shortages put health care workers in these countries in an impossible situation. They’re forced to triage too many patients with too little administrative support, modern technology, and up-to-date clinical guidance.”“Today’s AI can help save those lives by reaching many more people with much higher-quality care. Rwanda currently has only one health care worker per 1,000 people, far below the WHO recommendation of about four per 1,000. It would take 180 years for that gap to close at the current pace of progress. So, as part of the 4×4 reform initiative, Minister of Health Dr. Sabin Nsanzimana recently announced the launch of an AI-powered Health Intelligence Center in Kigali to help ensure limited health care resources are being used as wisely as possible. As part of the Horizon1000 initiative, we aim to accelerate the adoption of AI tools across primary care clinics, within communities, and in people’s homes. These AI tools will support health workers, not replace them,” Gates added.The tech billionaire explained: “In poorer countries with enormous health worker shortages and lack of health systems infrastructure, AI can be a gamechanger in expanding access to quality care. I believe this partnership with OpenAI, governments, innovators, and health workers in sub-Saharan Africa is a step towards the type of AI we need more of: systems that help people all over the world to solve generational challenges that they simply didn’t know how to address before. I invite others working on AI to think about how we can put these massively powerful tools to the best use.”
