From the Field
All Stories
In-depth reporting on how AI is solving real problems for real people, from healthcare delivery in rural Africa to ocean cleanup in the Pacific.
25 stories
An AI Doctor in Your Pocket That Monitors You 24/7
Prana is building an AI primary care doctor that lives on your phone, continuously monitoring health signals and catching problems before they become emergencies.
Beacon Health is Putting Value-Based Primary Care on Autopilot
AI agents automate the administrative burden crushing primary care clinics, so doctors can focus on patients instead of paperwork.
A Tiny Retinal Implant is Restoring Sight to the Blind
Science Corp's brain-computer interface stimulates retinal cells to restore vision. Over 40 patients in clinical trials, one read a novel for the first time in a decade.
Zipline's Drones Have Delivered a Million Medical Packages in Africa
AI-guided drones deliver blood and vaccines in minutes to clinics that roads cannot reach across Rwanda and Ghana.
How Crisis Text Line Uses AI to Save Lives at Scale
Machine learning identifies who is in immediate danger among thousands of texts, so counselors reach the most urgent cases 4x faster.
The Ocean Cleanup's AI is Finally Seeing What We Couldn't
AI maps garbage patches from satellite imagery, guiding systems that have removed over 15 million kg of plastic worldwide.
GenCast: How DeepMind Built a Weather Forecaster That Outperforms Supercomputers
GenCast outperforms ECMWF on 97.2% of targets and runs 15-day global forecasts in 8 minutes on a single TPU.
AlphaFold Predicted 200 Million Protein Structures. Now It's Fighting Neglected Diseases
DeepMind's AlphaFold is used by 3 million researchers. A DNDi partnership targets neglected tropical diseases like Chagas.
A $2,000 Ultrasound Probe is Saving Mothers Across Sub-Saharan Africa
Butterfly Network's handheld ultrasound with AI guidance has trained 1,050+ healthcare providers and cut maternal mortality by 20.6%.
FireSat Can Spot a Wildfire the Size of a Classroom from Space
A satellite constellation detects 5x5 meter fires and scans the entire planet every 20 minutes.
Europe is Building a Digital Twin of the Entire Planet
The EU's Destination Earth combines AI with supercomputing to create a digital replica of Earth's climate system.
Google Flood Hub: AI Flood Forecasting Protecting 460 Million People
Flood Hub provides AI flood forecasts up to 7 days in advance across 80+ countries with street-level predictions.
Khanmigo Went from 68,000 Users to 700,000 in One Year
Khan Academy's AI tutor uses the Socratic method, partners with 380+ school districts at $15 per student per year.
Kolibri Brings AI Education to Half a Billion Students with No Internet
Learning Equality's offline-first platform reaches 200+ countries and has shown +14% math gains in Cameroon.
Mobile Vans and AI are Finding Tuberculosis in Rural South Africa
Qure.ai reads chest X-rays in under one minute in mobile clinics, catching TB cases that human readers miss.
Project Guacamaya: AI Guards the Amazon One Satellite Image at a Time
AI generates daily satellite alerts for Amazon deforestation, replacing monthly review cycles.
Atlas AI Is Mapping Energy Poverty to Bring Solar Where It Matters Most
Satellite imagery and ML help target solar installations for the 770 million people without electricity.
AI Camera Traps Are Watching Over the World's Most Endangered Species
Wildlife Insights has processed over 200 million camera trap images to protect endangered species worldwide.
CottonAce Is Helping Indian Farmers Fight Pests with AI Instead of Pesticides
Wadhwani AI's app uses computer vision to help millions of cotton farmers reduce pesticide use by up to 50%.
Giga Has Mapped Over 2 Million Schools Using AI and Satellite Imagery
UNICEF and ITU use ML to map every school in the world and connect them to the internet across 140+ countries.
How GiveDirectly Uses AI to Send Cash Before Disasters Strike
AI and satellite data predict disasters, enabling anticipatory cash transfers before floods and droughts hit.
A Phone App Called Nuru is Saving Cassava Crops Across Africa
PlantVillage's Nuru diagnoses cassava diseases from phone photos, working offline for 800 million people's staple crop.
Rainforest Connection: Old Phones Listening for Illegal Logging
Recycled smartphones and AI acoustic monitoring protect millions of acres of rainforest in 35+ countries.
UN Women Is Training Women in AI to Close the Gender Gap
Training women in AI across Africa, Asia, and Latin America while advocating for inclusive AI development.
AI-Powered Microscopes Are Making Clean Water Testing Instant
WaterScope replaces 48-hour lab tests with minutes-long field analysis for communities that need it most.