May 16, 2024
Harnessing AI for Good
Robin Hood is advancing tech-powered solutions to innovate the fight against poverty
Radical technological change, like we’re experiencing with machine learning and artificial intelligence, has the potential to improve lives and expand opportunity. But it can just as easily leave low-income New Yorkers even further behind. That’s why Robin Hood infuses innovation into our work to fight poverty.
Earlier this year, we hosted our first-ever Opportunity X AI Summit, a gathering of minds exploring AI’s positive potential for New York City, where technology merged with philanthropy.
Featuring leaders from tech, academia, finance, and impact, the summit also announced the launch of our AI Poverty Challenge, a national competition to advance effective, and equitable uses of AI that broaden opportunity and support upward mobility for people living in poverty. The challenge will disburse up to $4 million in awards to finalists and three winners, representing three focus areas: Education, Workforce, and Financial Empowerment.
We’re looking for user-driven solutions informed by research and lived experience; winning ideas will be shaped by the communities and users who will benefit from and engage with these solutions. Click here for more details on the application process, evaluation criteria, list of challenge judges, and more.
The choices we make together – as governments, businesses, technologists, civil society organizations, and citizens – will determine the path we take. Robin Hood is committed to helping to shape that path, and that’s why we convened the Robin Hood Opportunity x AI Summit and are launching the AI Poverty Challenge."
This dedication to innovation is evident in our grantmaking, too; through the Robin Hood Learning + Technology Fund, we’re investing in four new organizations that deploy A.I. to supercharge student learning across NYC schools:
Center for Education Market Dynamics – Pilots the use of artificial intelligence to extract data on core and supplemental curriculum usage in New York City schools in order to evaluate the impact of curricula on student outcomes.
Joan M. Ganz Cooney Center – Leverages artificial intelligence to enhance early STEM learning among elementary school students in New York City.
Playlab.ai – Improves the Playlab program and digital platform to build artificial intelligence knowledge and capacity among educators and nonprofits in New York City.
Tech:NYC – Conducts a landscape analysis uncovering the artificial intelligence needs of, and resources available to, education nonprofits in New York City and pilots solutions to build their artificial intelligence skills and knowledge.
Robin Hood is invested in high-potential solutions to defeat poverty in NYC, and we’re prepared to brave this newest frontier to harness technology for good.
