Do you believe that AI can be a force for good? At the One Young World Summit Montréal/Tiohtià:ke, Maria Ressa, Nobel Peace Prize winner, journalist, and co-founder of Rappler, warned that AI should not be trusted because it is not anchored in facts. Despite this, 77% of companies globally are either using or exploring AI, and the AI market size is projected to reach over $243bn in 2025.
AI is the fastest-growing industry in the world, and, although there are risks to using the technology, these five Ambassadors are showing how its powers can positively change the world.
Anna Mae Lamentillo, Founder, NightOwlGPT
As of 2024, 44% of the world's languages are endangered, resulting in the loss of cultural heritage, identity, and critical communication channels for millions of people worldwide.
Through her organisation, NightOwlGPT, Anna Mae Lamentillo is using AI to preserve endangered languages while bridging the digital divide in marginalised communities. Available as a desktop and mobile app, NightOwlGPT provides real-time translations in Tagalog, the first language of the Tagalog people of the Philippines; Cebuano, an Austronesian language spoken in the southern Philippines; and Ilokano, primarily spoken by the Ilocano people and one of the eight major languages of the Philippines. To date, NightOwlGPT has translated over two million words.
NightOwlGPT is more than just a translation app. It also has interactive modules that teach language fundamentals and provide cultural insights to enhance the understanding of the language being translated and the community who uses it.
Among her many accolades, Anna Mae has received the Natatanging Iskolar Para sa Bayan and Oblation Statue for the Virtues of Industry and Magnanimity, the Veritas Medal from the Harvard Kennedy School Alumni Association, and, most recently, the She Shapes AI Award for AI and Learning.
Connect with Anna Mae to find out more about her inspiring work.
Isabel Pulido, President and Founder, NanoFreeze
Refrigeration is predicted to account for nearly 20% of all greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, yet it is essential for, amongst other things, food preservation and safely transporting lifesaving vaccinations. Isabel Pulido has found the solution through her organisation NanoFreeze.
Using bionanotechnology, Isabel has created a line of refrigeration products that use proteins to freeze water at a higher temperature, improving the crystallisation process and allowing water to freeze faster, helping it last longer.
In just five months, Isabel’s NanoFreeze Panels reduced CO2 emissions by over five tonnes by extending the 'off' cycles of refrigerators while maintaining cold temperatures.
“My mission is to cool the planet,” Isabel stated at the One Young World Summit, in Belfast. “And I invite you all to join me in this mission.”
Stay updated with the latest from NanoFreeze by connecting with Isabel.
Jose Zea, CEO and Co-Founder, Arkangel AI
Jose Zea is transforming healthcare through his organisation Arkangel AI.
Our healthcare system is reactive rather than preventative, and more than half of the world’s population doesn’t have access to essential health services. After losing a family member to a condition that could have been treated with an earlier diagnosis, Jose co-founded Arkangel AI, a platform to get more patients diagnosed, quicker, and more cost-effectively. The platform works by allowing healthcare institutions to transform their medical data into AI algorithms, allowing them to scan millions of medical records for early warning signals of conditions from chronic kidney disease to maternal mortality.
The results to date have been astounding. In partnership with Arkangel AI, UNICEF has sped up leukaemia detection in children by 28 times and Novartis has cut malaria detection costs nearly fivefold, allowing healthcare providers to allocate resources more effectively towards high-value care.
Connect with Jose to discover the latest Arkangel AI advancements.
Gitanjali Rao, Inventor and Student
At 19 years old, Gitanjali has developed seven inventions. These include Kindly, an AI-based anti-cyberbullying service, Tethys, a device to detect lead in drinking water, and Epione, a device to diagnose prescription opioid addiction using developments in protein detection systems.
Kindly, now a formal UNICEF Digital Public Good Service is an Application Programming Interface (API) which aims to eliminate cyberbullying before it has even begun. Using machine learning Kindly identifies potentially harmful messages before they are sent, providing the user feedback on the content of their message.
Alongside inventing, Gitanjali has hosted 500 workshops in 46 countries, impacting 85,000 students. These workshops aim to encourage students to enter the world of STEM, providing them with an interactive session on the latest technologies and innovations.
Connect with Gitanjali to discover more about her innovative inventions.
Arhum Ishtiaq, Co-Founder, ConnectHear
The World Health Organisation predicts that by 2050 nearly 2.5 billion people will have some degree of hearing loss. Currently, in Pakistan, 14.5 million people are hard of hearing. Arhum is using AI to help these people stay connected.
ConnectHear is Arhum’s revolutionary app that uses AI to connect a deaf person to an interpreter seven days a week, allowing them to live independently and without being reliant on friends, family, or expensive interpreters. To date, Arhum has facilitated over one million minutes of sign language interpretation with 22,000 deaf people.
Alongside keeping the deaf community connected, ConnectHear is helping people correctly learn sign language by using AI to provide feedback if a certain sign movement is wrong automatically. So far, ConnectHear has helped 5,000 people learn sign language.
Stay connected with Arhum to keep up to date with his latest work.