AI for Good: Why Microsoft is Using AI for Positive Change

A lot can happen in 50 years. Just ask Microsoft. For half a century the company – which Bill Gates and Paul Allen started in a garage after a moment of inspiration from Popular Electronics magazine – has been at the forefront of innovation.

This year Microsoft celebrates its anniversary, reflecting on 50 years of innovation that has transformed the way that society uses technology at work and at home. This includes revolutionising personal computing with MS-DOS and Windows, bringing gaming to everyone on the planet with Xbox, and driving the future of cloud computing and AI with Azure and Copilot.

As part of marking the occasion, Microsoft is looking ahead and exploring the ways in which AI can help to create a better future for the next 50 years. It’s doing so through a special AI for Good Open Call Program looking to support projects in public health, education, sustainability and humanitarian action. 

The launch is part of a larger effort by Microsoft to support initiatives, individuals and organisations in the Seattle area and its hometown of Redmond, Washington as a way of giving back to the region in which it has been based since the late 1970s. 

The company recognised the way in which local communities had contributed to its success, explaining that its future depends on ensuring their health and vibrancy. It explained that ‘we are committed to investing and honouring the people and organisations that make our region a centre of innovation and inclusion’.

AI with measurable social impact

The AI for Good Open Call Program is being run by Microsoft’s AI for Good Lab, a research initiative focused on using AI to tackle complex global and humanitarian challenges through innovation and collaboration. 

It is aimed at nonprofit organisations, startups and researchers, academic institutions and businesses aligned with an overarching mission of contributing towards positive impact. 

Eligible projects must demonstrate how they’re using AI to address complex challenges related to sustainability and human rights, and show the capacity to innovate, scale and deploy using Microsoft’s Azure cloud services – a pool of US$5m in Azure credits will likely be split between as many as 20 organisations and projects, according to Microsoft.  

Alongside Azure credits and compute resources, successful projects have the opportunity to collaborate with the company’s researchers and data scientists, and receive training and mentorship to develop and scale their ideas.

Discussing the initiative in a Microsoft blog Chief Data Scientist Juan Lavista Ferres, highlighted the previous work of the AI for Good Lab within the local community, and its track record of partnering with groups pioneering innovation in medical research, preserving biodiversity, supporting vulnerable communities and promoting local heritage and culture.

“As someone who’s worked at Microsoft and called Washington home for over a decade, I’ve had the privilege of collaborating with extraordinary organisations making a difference across our state,” he said. “I’m eager to see even more innovative ways AI can be used for good in the place I’m proud to call home.”

Microsoft’s commitment to change

AI changes the way we use data and improve lives. Microsoft's AI for Good Lab was established in 2018 to deliver on this premise and develop technology that changes humanity for the better. 

It is focused on some of the most complex and rapidly evolving challenges humanity faces around food security, access to effective health services, biodiversity decline, and climate change. 

The latter presents one of the most pressing issues of our time, requiring swift, collective action and the application of innovative technologies. The AI for Good Lab works to use AI to advance sustainability efforts in line with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. 

For example, it collaborates with and empowers key decision makers in sustainability by providing them with reliable and accurate data. This includes mapping solar and wind installations, and developing advanced AI tools that help to forecast, advance and maximise efficiency for solar energy.

Other areas Microsoft has applied AI to include mitigating deforestation in the Amazon through the use of satellite analysis to detect illegal activity, mapping and analysing tourist activity to advance more sustainable tourism, and developing a model that predicts health risks and helps curb malnutrition. 

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