Geelong AI platform earns spot at UN summit

GEELONG-developed artificial intelligence will take on the world next month after winning an Australian competition backed by the United Nations.

Enterprise Monkey’s platform, Agents for Humanity, has won the AI for Good Innovation Factory competition and will now represent the country at the global final in Geneva.

Agents for Humanity is a free website where people, community groups, charities and organisations can submit a problem they are trying to solve.

AI agents then research the issue, compare global examples, assess potential solutions and create a solution with steps to implement it.

Enterprise Monkey chief executive Aamir Qutub said the goal was not to create a system with all the answers, but to help people find solutions that may already exist elsewhere in the world.

“For most of the problems, there might be a solution somewhere,” Qutub said.

 

“Even if the solution is not 100 per cent complete, the platform acknowledges that and it becomes a repository for problems that truly cannot be solved.

“As the models become better, some of those problems can be re-attempted and be solved as well.”

Agents for Humanity was tested with eight pilot organisations across the world on about 40 separate challenges.

These included finding the best way to provide adequate nutrition to students at a school in Kenya on a limited budget and exploring ways to create a livelihood for girls in India who are unable to access formal education.

After winning the Australian final in Perth in May, Agents for Humanity will be one of 12 finalists at the global summit in Geneva on 7–10 July.

Qutub said the team was proud to be taking technology developed in Geelong onto the world stage.

 

“We think Geelong is the place where innovation happens and we’re trying to get more businesses and investors to come to Geelong because it’s the right size and right opportunity,” he said.

“I think it allows us to showcase Geelong on the world stage and to represent Australia is a big honour as well.”

Qutub said businesses and organisations could not afford to ignore artificial intelligence.

“If we are not truly embracing AI, then we are going to be left behind,” he said.

Qutub argued AI’s greatest potential lay in solving real-world problems.

“AI was created with a promise that it was going to do a lot of good, but then somewhere it lost its promise,” he said.

“I think this is our opportunity to bring AI to what it should be doing, to solve human problems.”