Google announces AI-led collaborations India, focus on health, sustainability and agriculture

Google announced new partnerships to bring its AI research and models to support India’s healthcare, sustainability and agriculture sectors.  
| Photo Credit: AP

Google announced new partnerships to bring its AI research and models to support India’s healthcare, sustainability and agriculture sectors.

The company shared it will work with partners to help scale screening for diabetic retinopathy, strengthen India’s circular economy, and open its Agricultural Landscape Understanding (ALU) Research API to developers to support India’s agriculture sector.

Healthcare

In healthcare, Google says it has licensed its diabetic retinopathy AI model to healthcare providers and health-tech partners. The move, it says will support approximately 6 million AI-assisted screenings for diabetic retinopathy in resource-constrained communities in India and Thailand over the next 10 years, at no cost to patients.

The model aims to address preventable blindness amongst patients with diabetes, supporting clinicians with early detection at scale, and in turn assisting timely medical intervention.

Sustainability

Google’s open-source machine-learning computer vision model, will be used by partners in India to sort plastic waste, improve recycling, reduce strain on landfills from recyclable waste, and strengthen the country’s circular economy.

The tech will be used for its material identification capabilities, and makes use of Google’s TensorFlow open-source software library for machine learning and artificial intelligence.

The tech, Google says, works by providing pixel-level instance segmentation that supports data-driven decisions and supports vision-based quality control system that checks quality and quantity of waste before it is sorted, baled and sent to recycling centers, as well as when it is received at the recycling centers.

Agriculture

Google is also opening up access for developers to its Agricultural Landscape Understanding (ALU) Research API that uses remote sensing and AI to provide insights at individual farm level across India. The tech combines high-resolution satellite imagery with advanced machine learning models to identify fields, water bodies and vegetation boundaries and their acreage.

Google says these capabilities can enable India’s agricultural ecosystem to make more data-driven and efficient decisions, while also developing precision agriculture tools, optimizing resource allocation, and improving farm management practices.

Google is currently partnering with Forus Health and Auro Lab in healthcare, and with Saahas Zero Waste to help strengthen India’s circular economy.

Published – October 18, 2024 11:27 am IST

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