Giving Compass' Take:

• The author discusses how nonprofit organizations are utilizing human-centered applications to build AI technology for social good. 

• What are some examples of charitable organizations that are pioneering AI tech? How can donors identify and support these organizations' progress?

•  Read more about artificial intelligence and nonprofits.

The future may be closer than we think. And the miraculous feats are not happening in Silicon Valley X-Labs — in a plot twist, nonprofits are leading the charge in creating human-centered applications of the hottest AI technologies. From the simplest automated communications to contextual learnings based on analysis of deep data, these technologies have the potential to rapidly scale and improve the lives of our most underserved communities.

Take chatbots for example, a new spin on mobile messaging that has historically been human-powered. Organizations like TalkingPoints and mRelief have for years used simple mobile messaging to meet users where they’re at. Recently, tech nonprofits are taking a new approach. Raheem.ai, a Facebook Messenger bot for reporting and rating experiences with police officers, engages with users to walk them through reporting police incidents and provide follow-on support.

Crisis Text Line still implements a human-to-human volunteer model, but the tech nonprofit has the largest open source database of youth crisis behavior in the country, and has been able to use AI to dramatically shorten response time for high-risk texters from 120 seconds to 39.

Does it matter that these companies are non-profits?
Yes. As the cost of AI implementation drops, it will become ubiquitous across software. The AI use case for a nonprofit is significant because incentives are well aligned to collect and open source the collected data. Effective implementation of AI requires massive data. Profit motives can restrain a company’s incentive to open its data, but this is not so for non-profits. Open data serves the broader purpose of public education and knowledge sharing. As tech non-profits deploy these technologies and open source their findings, they can deepen the capacity of all AI applications.

Read the full article about AI nonprofits by Shannon Farley at Recode.