OpenAI and Gates Foundation: AI for the African healthcare sector

The Gates Foundation and OpenAI are entering into a partnership to improve access to medical care in African countries using AI. This is reported in blog posts on the website of Bill Gates and OpenAI. As part of the Horizon 1000 project, a total of 50 million US dollars in funding, technology, and technical support will be provided.

AI can play a crucial role, especially in poorer countries, in ensuring access to high-quality care, explained Microsoft co-founder and foundation chairman Bill Gates in a blog post on the initiative's launch. The goal of Horizon 1000 is therefore to support several African countries in integrating artificial intelligence into their healthcare sector systems.

According to Gates, the use of AI is primarily intended to mitigate the severe shortage of medical professionals in African countries but also to improve the healthcare infrastructure as a whole. Sub-Saharan Africa alone lacks around 5.6 million healthcare workers. US company OpenAI writes about the launch of Horizon 1000 on its website. In practice, AI applications are primarily intended to help reduce administrative overhead and allow medical staff more time for patient care.

Initiative launch planned in Rwanda

According to Gates, Rwanda will be the first country to receive support under Horizon 1000. In Rwanda, there is currently only one healthcare professional per 1000 inhabitants, which is far below the recommendation of about four professionals, writes the chairman of the Gates Foundation on his blog. Rwanda's Minister of Health, Dr. Sabin Nsanzimana, has therefore announced an AI-supported health center for the capital, Kigali, through which limited resources are to be distributed as efficiently as possible.

Such projects are to be supported in the future within the framework of Horizon 1000. Specifically, according to Gates, the focus is on the introduction of AI systems in medical facilities such as hospitals and doctor's offices, but also in communities and private households. However, AI tools are only intended to support medical staff and not replace them, emphasized the US billionaire.

Nevertheless, AI has the potential to get global healthcare back on track after the massive cuts in international development aid last year. Gates explained to the news agency Reuters on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos. “With innovation and AI, we can get back on the right track,” he said on Wednesday in Davos. The technology will revolutionize healthcare and is particularly valuable for countries affected by the cuts.

AI companies are pushing into the healthcare sector

Major AI corporations are increasingly pushing into the healthcare sector. After OpenAI introduced an AI health assistant with ChatGPT Health, US company Anthropic also followed suit and released its own AI-powered health assistant with Claude for Healthcare.

The healthcare sector promises to be lucrative for the AI industry. However, critics warn of the potential consequences of using AI in healthcare. Systems like ChatGPT are not approved as medical devices and therefore cannot be used to support treatment, explained Jürgen Schröder, head of contract medical law at the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians (KBV).

Experts like Manuel Hofmann from Deutsche Aidshilfe also point to the discrepancy between future fantasies and the prevailing realities of healthcare systems. The idea that administrative tasks will be eliminated and more time will be available for personal care is an illusion in healthcare systems that rely on outdated technology like fax machines. Using the example of HIV and the US withdrawal from international HIV programs, it becomes clear what is truly lacking. People are dying from a treatable disease because they lack medication, Hofmann emphasized.

(mho)