Artificial intelligence startups dominate global VC funding in 2025, yet the vast majority of this $193 billion in capital flowing to well-funded Silicon Valley firms pursuing commercial applications.
We need a different kind of funding opportunity that prioritizes social impact over profit margins. Billions in the Global South lack access to basic services that AI could transform in healthcare, agriculture, and climate resilience.
We need real-world uses tied to UN Sustainable Development Goals, not the speculative AI investments dominating headlines.
$25,000 for Health, Agriculture & Climate Challenges
The GenAI for Good Challenge by IEEE and ITU represents a critical counter-narrative to the AI investment frenzy, offering up to $25,000 to teams building generative AI solutions for these urgent development challenges:
- Agriculture Extension Chatbot (Lesotho): A mobile-friendly AI assistant providing farmers real-time crop guidance and market alerts via voice, text, and basic phones
- Non-Communicable Disease Prevention (The Gambia): A multilingual chatbot delivering personalized health guidance to prevent and manage chronic conditions like hypertension
- Extreme Weather Advisor (Bangladesh): An AI-powered early warning system helping farmers prepare for droughts, floods, and heatwaves
The GenAI for Good Challenge will help technologists and innovators team up with international partners, get funding, connect with global networks, and build AI solutions with measurable impact on pressing global challenges. This is a structured pathway from prototype to real-world deployment.
The initiative leverages the new ITU GENIE.AI framework, designed specifically to help public institutions deploy custom generative AI solutions. All submissions must be open-source, promoting transparency and collaborative innovation—a stark contrast to the proprietary models dominating commercial AI development.
The two-phase application structure begins with narrative proposals, followed by functional prototype development for finalists using provided cloud environments.
Apply Now: Deadline is December 1, 2025
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