A startup in India is revolutionizing artificial intelligence (AI) to make it transformative for the poorest and most marginalized people in the communities.
With the Karya app, individuals get a portion of earnings every time their data is resold. It's an ethical approach to consider away from the rampant practice of unfair labor across the country.
Indian Startup Prioritizes Most Marginalized Families
As seen in a story by TIME, Chandrika, a professional teacher who hails from Southern Karnataka is once earning money through teaching students. However, her life drastically changed when she discovered an app that can allow her to earn more than her salary in teaching.
When she found out that she can gain extra income in a short period, he decided to maximize the app usage. Now, she managed to get freed from the shackles of financial problems.
Chandrika's life before she discovered the app resembles a typical life of a daily laborer. She barely has extra funds in her bank account. At that time, she recalled that she only had 184 rupees or $2.25.
With the Karya app, she exceeded her usual salary and this time, she earned 2,570 which is nearly $32. There's no catch here and she can work for a few hours while earning more money.
For Chandrika, the app is a game-changer and a life-saver. She even receives incentives in the form of a 50% bonus for accurate voice clips.
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Helping the Underprivileged to Survive Daily
The success of this app lies in the AI boom that has revolutionized the digital world. Advanced AI models thrive in languages like English due to the abundance of text and audio data available online.
However, languages like Kannada, which are spoken by millions but lack a significant online presence, pose challenges for AI systems. These "lower resourced" languages often face biases and struggle with understanding local dialects, making data collection a crucial aspect of AI development.
In this context, Karya, a nonprofit startup based in Bengaluru, India, emerges as a beacon of hope. Unlike conventional companies that exploit labor by paying meager wages and selling data to foreign clients, Karya takes an ethical approach. It sells data at fair market rates and directs a substantial portion of its earnings toward supporting rural communities in India.
Karya partners with local NGOs to ensure that its job opportunities prioritize the underprivileged and marginalized individuals. Additionally, the company empowers its workers by granting them ownership of the data they create. This means that workers receive a share of the revenue when their data is resold, making them stakeholders in the process.
For villagers in places like Alahalli and Chilukavadi, where Karya is piloting its new model, the impact is truly life-changing.
For individuals like Kanakaraj S., a college student burdened with manual labor to make ends meet, Karya's app brings financial stability without the physical toll. The hourly income from the app surpasses daily earnings, making a significant difference in the lives of hardworking villagers.
Beyond financial empowerment, Karya's ethical data approach helps alleviate the burden of loans taken during emergencies. Chandrika's story is a testament to this; she plans to use her earnings to support her family in repaying a medical loan incurred during her sister's illness and unfortunate demise.
Extending Help to Healthcare
Moreover, Karya's work extends to crucial healthcare initiatives. By collecting voice data about tuberculosis in various Kannada dialects, Karya aims to train an AI speech model to respond to local queries and provide relevant information.
The app's potential to bridge the information gap for illiterate individuals is promising, reducing the stigma faced by tuberculosis patients in close-knit communities. The revenue generated from reselling this data is thoughtfully distributed among the diligent contributors, fostering an environment of fairness and inclusion.
In other news, Together Fund, an India-based venture capital firm has announced that it will support AI companies, per Bloomberg. As an initiative, it allocated a $150 million fund that will help the software-as-a-service firms.
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