Today, Microsoft announced that the through the new AI for Accessibility program, the company has committed $25 million over the next five years where these funds will be used to help people with disabilities worldwide (according to The World Bank, figure currently sitting at over one billion).
This is fairly similar to the company‘s AI for Each initiative, which uses AI technology for environmental innovations. In the AI for Accessibility program, the company will handle this through investments, grants and expert assistance when needed. It should also come at no surprise that the AI solutions will connect to the company‘s cloud services.
This isn’t just it either. Microsoft says that it will open source the Azure IOT Edge Runtime, giving developers more control over how their devices connect to cloud services. In addition, Custom Vision, the Azure Cognitive Services feature that allows devices to detect and learn imagery through cameras, will now become available offline. For industrial customers, this will especially make things easier because internet isn’t friendly to them at times.
Currently, we don’t have too many details on AI for Accessbility, but Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella will dive into it more during Build keynote this morning.
