He said the fellowship follows a recent $1.4m grant from Google.org to help Jacaranda advance the field of generative AI, ensuring every mother accesses the right information and support during and after pregnancy.
He said Jacaranda's digital health navigator, PROMPTS, currently uses AI to engage and provide personalised support to new and expecting mothers across the country via SMS.
According to him, recently, the organisation borrowed learnings from this work to develop new, open-source models that not only open the door for the Pan-African PROMPTS scale but also could support other implementers improve their own AI-driven services.
"The work we have planned with support from these Fellows will give us the springboard to significantly improve maternal and newborn health outcomes through the power of AI, and push the boundaries of what's possible in healthcare," said Patel.
Agnes Gathaiya, Google's Country Director for East Africa said Jacaranda, with support from the Fellows, aims to push the boundaries of what language models can achieve, ensuring they are more accurate, fair, inclusive and scalable across different languages and contexts.
"Providing mothers with the support they need during pregnancy is a powerful example of how AI can be used to help more people at a wider scale," she said.
Gathaiya said Google is proud to have its employees help Jacaranda develop new technical solutions to drive their mission.
Last week, Amref Health Africa urged county governments and the Ministry of Health to harness the power of artificial intelligence and data analytics to eliminate preventable maternal deaths across the country.
The 13 counties bearing the heaviest burden include Tana River, Garissa, West Pokot, Elgeyo Marakwet, Siaya, Makueni, Migori among others.