Rising presents the Rori Chatbot at The New York Public Library for UNGA78

“If we want the AI revolution to be an inclusive one, we need to design solutions that meet the diverse needs of the world’s young people.”

This was the message from our Chief Strategy Officer, George Cowell, when we were given the opportunity to present at New York Public Library for the United Nations General Assembly in September. 

The event, convened by Secretary of State, Antony J. Blinken, focused on using AI to accelerate progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals. 

During our presentation alongside Liz McNally, Co-CEO of Schmidt Futures, George described how our virtual math tutor Rori combines a low tech front end (WhatsApp), a high-tech backend (Generative Chat, Machine Learning, Natural Language Processing), and a representative dataset (African learners) to create a highly inclusive tool for children across Africa and beyond. 

“Rori is designed to tackle one of the biggest barriers to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals: too many children are in school but not mastering basic literacy and mathematics. Because Rori works on any device that supports WhatsApp, it’s scalable and affordable to students, parents and schools in the places that need it most.”  

“A low-tech front-end. A high-tech back-end. And a representative dataset. If we want the AI revolution to be an inclusive one, that is the combination we need.” 
The Event Fact Sheet can be found here.