Gates Foundation and OpenAI launch $50M Horizon1000 program to deploy AI in African healthcare

The Bill Gates Foundation and OpenAI have launched a $50 million collaborative effort to front-run artificial intelligence usage in Africa’s health systems.

Horizon1000, the AI program announced by the Gates Foundation earlier this week, is meant to provide African governments with the know-how to use artificial intelligence in healthcare. It would also reduce mortality rates and fill gaps in Africa’s medical workforce, the charitable foundation said. 

Bill Gates and OpenAI fund AI-driven healthcare services in Africa

According to Gates, many African health systems are struggling with workforce shortages and uneven access to quality care. The partners said the project will work directly with policymakers and health leaders to make sure AI tools meet local needs, not the imported products from offshore aid.

Horizon1000 plans to support up to 1,000 primary health clinics and surrounding communities in several African countries by 2028, starting with Rwanda. The foundation has already established an artificial intelligence health hub in Kigali.

Speaking at the official opening of the Africa Health Tech Summit last October, Rwanda’s Minister of Health, Dr. Sabin Nsanzimana,  said AI is a transformative force in medicine.

“There are two major discoveries that changed the history of medicine: the invention of vaccines in 1796 and the discovery of antibiotics in 1928. The third, today, is Artificial Intelligence in healthcare,” Nsanzimana told healthcare and technology leaders in the summit.

The minister talked about how AI has helped doctors identify illnesses before symptoms worsen, which in turn has helped the healthcare providers’ timely intervention. He cited Rwanda’s experience with Zipline, a national drone delivery program that transports blood and medical supplies to remote hospitals.

“At the beginning, many people did not believe it was possible. They asked, ‘How can blood fall from the sky and arrive at hospitals?’ But today, it’s normal. All rural hospitals can access these supplies quickly and save lives,” he boasted.

In its press statement, the Gates Foundation noted severe staffing gaps in Sub-Saharan Africa, the region with the world’s highest child mortality rates. The charity estimated a shortfall of nearly six million healthcare workers, a deficit that training programs are unlikely to close in the near term.

The World Health Organization estimates that poor-quality care contributes to between six and eight million deaths each year in low- and middle-income countries. That figure does not account for millions more who die in rural areas because they are unable to access healthcare services at all.

“In poorer countries with enormous health worker shortages and lack of health systems infrastructure, AI can be a game-changer in expanding access to quality care,” Gates said.

AI can give ill medical advice, doctors debate

Despite enthusiasm surrounding AI-sponsored health services, medical advocacy groups are still not quite sure the technology is in the right state to provide services, more so, unsupervised. One concern is that AI systems can wrongfully diagnose patients if they provide any incorrect symptoms, which a doctor would be mindful of.

Research has further suggested that AI may worsen health outcomes for understudied populations, including women and ethnic minorities. Many AI models are trained on datasets that underrepresent diseases affecting these groups, and could provide biased or incomplete recommendations.

Africa is home to thousands of languages and dialects, but most existing health data and AI models are trained in English. This means that patients and clinicians who do not speak English as a first language would be purportedly helpless.

A study published last year by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology found that the phrasing of a health question influences AI responses. Patients whose messages contained spelling mistakes, informal language, or uncertain wording were between 7-9% more likely to be advised against seeking medical care compared to those using perfectly formatted text. 

Speaking on the prospects of Horizon1000, OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman said developers have a huge responsibility to mould AI into a system that health companies can use effectively. 

“AI is going to be a scientific marvel no matter what, but for it to be a societal marvel, we’ve got to figure out ways that we use this incredible technology to improve people’s lives,” Altman noted.

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