According to reports, Google has licensed its AI model to Forus Health and AuroLab in India to help detect preventable blindness at early stages among diabetic patients.

With new partnerships in India and Thailand, Google aims to facilitate 6 million free AI screenings for diabetic retinopathy in underserved areas over the next decade. The AI model initially researched and developed in India, has already supported more than 600,000 screenings in clinics around the world.

“Each of these partners will own, operate, deploy, and maintain the AI model, and will work with local regulatory bodies to secure the necessary approvals to scale the program at a population level,” says Sunny Virmani, Group Product Manager for Health AI Research, Google.

In addition to healthcare, Google promotes sustainability with its CircularNet model, an open-source machine-learning computer vision model that assesses the quality and quantity of waste before it is sorted, packaged, and sent to recycling centers.

Bengaluru-based Saahas Zero Waste reported an 85 percent accuracy rate in detecting plastic waste after piloting Circulanet's AI model at its material recycling facility.

In the agricultural sector, Google has opened access to its Agricultural Landscape Understanding (ALU) research API to developers, which uses satellite imagery to identify fields, water bodies, and vegetation boundaries.

“The ALU API, developed through collaborations between Google’s AnthroKrishi team, researchers, and state and union governments across India, demonstrates our commitment to empowering India’s agricultural ecosystem,” says Alok Talekar, Engineering Lead, Google DeepMind India.

“This technology is designed to equip the ecosystem with tools to tackle rising productivity challenges alongside climate threats with targeted interventions,” adds Alok.

Google DeepMind's India division is also leading Project Vaani, a joint project with the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) and ARTPARK (Artificial Intelligence & Robotics Technology Park). The Indian Language AI project aims to build a comprehensive and unbiased Indian language AI, covering 125 Indian languages and dialects.

“The project’s first phase has created an open-source database of over 14,000 hours of speech data across 58 languages, collected from 80,000 speakers in 80 districts,” says Manish Gupta, Director of Google DeepMind, Google India.

“First announced in December 2022, Project Vaani plans to collect and transcribe 154,000 hours of anonymized speech data from all 773 districts in India. Phase two is underway, covering 160 districts across all states,” adds Manish.