Meet the Nonprofit Building a "Public AI Web" and an Offline Device for 22 Indian Languages

Imagine a farmer in a remote village needing information about a dying plant. She takes a picture, but the internet requires English, a language she does not speak. This is the exact challenge a new nonprofit, Current AI, is tackling by creating public, open AI infrastructure designed for everyone.

Just recently, Current AI teamed up with Bhashini, the Indian government’s AI language division, to launch a remarkable solution. They introduced Suno Sutra, which means "listening chronicles" in Hindi. This pocket-sized, offline device runs artificial intelligence in 22 different Indian languages, requiring no internet connection at all.

Current AI CEO Ayah Bdeir highlighted the urgency of this work. She explained that India alone has hundreds of languages and dialects, many of which are completely left out by current AI systems. This new device is also open-sourced, meaning developers can build upon it and adapt it further for their communities.

The nonprofit, founded by Martin Tisne and joined by Bdeir (who previously led Mozilla’s AI strategy and founded the STEM education company littleBits), is moving with impressive speed. Over the past month, Current AI allocated 3.2 million dollars in grants to projects across Kenya, Lebanon, and the Brazilian Amazon. They also recently launched Alpha Chat, an open-source AI chatbot, in collaboration with ten organizations including Hugging Face and Mozilla, showing how different pieces of the AI puzzle can be brought together publicly.

Current AI operates as a unique "public-private partnership," gathering funds from governments, companies, and philanthropies for public interest technology. The French government kicked things off with 100 million dollars, joined by major players like the Ford Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, DeepMind, and Salesforce, bringing the total committed funding to 400 million dollars. Bdeir emphasizes these are funders, not investors, underscoring a different mission from traditional tech ventures. This initiative stands in stark contrast to nearly every major AI system today, from OpenAI to Google, which are owned by private companies.

Why should you care about this push for public AI? Many of the world’s languages are facing extinction, and with English dominating most AI systems, countless languages, cultures, and communities are being left behind. A truly public alternative ensures that AI serves all of humanity, not just those speaking dominant languages or benefiting corporate bottom lines. This effort directly impacts everyday people by giving them AI tools that understand their unique cultural context, allowing communities to control their own data and narratives, rather than having them dictated by distant tech companies focused on market expansion.

What happens next will be critical. Current AI aims to continue building out this open AI ecosystem, akin to the early days of the World Wide Web, where improvements benefit everyone and no one is locked out. They will focus on expanding their grant programs and fostering more collaborations to develop robust, culturally sensitive AI tools. Watch for how they navigate the complex questions of data ownership and community consent, aiming to empower local groups to make decisions about their digital future.

Do you think a nonprofit-led, public AI alternative can truly compete with the vast resources and speed of major tech companies, or is its mission inherently different?

If AI were truly open and available in every language, how do you imagine it could uniquely benefit your community or specific cultural knowledge?

---

Filed under: PublicAI, OpenSourceAI, DigitalInclusion, LanguagePreservation, CurrentAI