Google said that the partnership will support nearly 60 Lakh AI-assisted screenings for diabetic retinopathy in resource-constrained communities in India over the next 10 years
The big tech giant also said that it will open up access to its ALU Research API for Indian developers
Google’s India DeepMind unit will also helm Project Vaani in collaboration with IISc and ARTPARK to build an “inclusive and equitable” Indic AI
Big tech major Google said it has licensed its artificial intelligence (AI) model to two Indian companies, Forus Health and AuroLab, to help detect preventable early-stage blindness among diabetic patients.
In a blog post, Google said that the partnership will enable the two companies to support nearly 60 Lakh AI-assisted screenings for diabetic retinopathy in resource-constrained communities in India over the next 10 years.
Commenting on the collaboration, Forus Health founder and CEO K Chandrasekhar said, “Forus Health is thrilled to partner with Google to bring AI-powered diabetic retinopathy screening to the forefront of eye care by leveraging our innovative retinal cameras and platform. We are confident of impacting millions of lives and fulfil our mission of eliminating preventable blindness”.
As per Economic Times, group product manager for health AI research at Google, Sunny Virmani, said that the two partners will individually own, operate, deploy, and maintain the AI model. He added that the two Indian startups will work with local regulatory bodies to secure the necessary approvals to scale the program at a population level.
Meanwhile, the big tech giant also said that it will open up access to its Agricultural Landscape Understanding (ALU) Research API for Indian developers. In the blog, Google said that the API will allow agritech startups to develop precision agriculture tools that provide tailored advice to farmers based on their unique field conditions.
Announced at I/O Connect in Bengaluru earlier this year, ALU Research API leverages remote sensing data and AI to gather insights at individual farm level. It uses high-resolution satellite imagery and advanced machine learning models to organise agri-data such as identifying fields, water bodies and vegetation boundaries and their acreage.
“We are now opening up access to the ALU API for developers. This will enable support to stakeholders across the agri ecosystem in their respective efforts: from helping public sector agencies improve the accuracy of land records, to agri-input companies optimising the distribution of resources like seeds and fertilisers,” Google added.
As per the big tech major, the API will help startups and stakeholders optimise resource allocation, improve agricultural practices and make more data-driven and efficient decisions in the agriculture sector.
On top of this, Google, as per ET, also said that its India DeepMind unit will helm Project Vaani in collaboration with the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) and ARTPARK (Artificial Intelligence & Robotics Technology Park).
The project will look to cover 125 Indian languages and dialects to build an “inclusive and equitable” Indic AI. In Phase I, an open-source database comprising 14,000 hours of speech data across 58 languages, collected from 80,000 speakers in 80 districts, has already been created. As per the report, phase two is currently underway and will look to cover 160 districts across all states.
