ABOUTThis is what The Conversation reports.Thanks to information received from mobile operators and from satellites, and a new system of artificial intelligence, it has become possible to determine which people are most in need of financial assistance. Read more in the article.Discuss According to University of California (USA) scientists Emily Aiken and Joshua Blumenstock, governments around the world and humanitarian groups can use artificial intelligence and data from their mobile devices to help poor people. The thing is, poor people generally use their phones differently than rich people. For example, they connect other tariff plans.
Thanks to machine learning algorithms, it will be possible to quickly analyze data on messages, calls, tariff plan, etc. subscriber and determine if the owner of the phone needs money.
A similar approach has already been taken by researchers at the University of California. They helped Togo's Ministry of Digital Economy and GiveDirectly, an organization that sends money to the poor. To do this, experts conducted 15,000 telephone surveys among residents of the African country of Togo. Scientists found out what the living conditions are in each household. Next, the experts compared people's responses with information received from mobile operators, and then trained the algorithm to determine the characteristics of phone use of people who live on less than $1.25 a day.
After that, the specialists, together with the government of Togo, GiveDirectly and community leaders, created a money transfer program. It was based on the use of artificial intelligence technology. The first money was received by the inhabitants of the country in November 2020, and today, thanks to the program, about 137 thousand of the poorest people of Togo were provided with assistance.