From humble beginnings in Ghana’s capital – Accra, an Artificial Intelligence startup jointly established by two old boys of Mfantsipim School has received recognition from Forbes, an American Business magazine.
Kwame AI, developed by Dr. George Boateng and Victor Kumbol, is an AI-powered web application that is making science and technology education readily accessible to students across Africa and other parts of the world through smartphones.
The duo was listed under the social impact category of the 2023 Forbes 30 under 30 Europe list.
Their web app employs an artificial intelligence teaching assistant known as Kwame – a name sourced from Ghana’s first President “Kwame Nkrumah”, to obtain instant answers to science questions and also view past standardized exam questions on its Kwame AI web app.
“It’s a huge honor for my cofounder, Victor and I to be recognized on the 2023 Forbes 30 Under 303 Europe list for our hard work at Kwame AI towards impacting the lives of millions of young Africans using AI and mobile devices,” Dr. Boateng, Chief Executive Officer of Kwame AI said.
He explains the inspiration to develop the user-friendly web app was ignited during the group’s 4th annual edition of an innovation boot camp in 2017.
They realized out of the 27 trainees who attended, a quarter of them had laptops, yet 100% possessed smartphones. It compelled them to redesign their coding module to fit the five-inch screen – a first of its kind in Ghana.
“Realizing the potential of our smartphone-based course, in 2018, we created SuaCode, a smartphone-based online coding program aiming to teach millions across Africa how to code by exploiting the proliferation and untapped capabilities of smartphones. Between 2018 and 2020, we ran 4 pilots of SuaCode that reached 3K learners across 69 countries (42 in Africa). Our alumni have landed coding internships and jobs at Microsoft and Google, and others are now studying computer science/engineering at top universities such as Yale, Dartmouth, MIT, and Columbia. We then built an AI teaching assistant, Kwame to help us scale our support to students in the coding course and for science education,” he said.
The nomination comes at the heels of recent major global recognition of the company’s works such as the 2022 IBM New Creators and the 2021 MIT Technology Review’s 35 Innovators Under 35.
The group is currently enhancing features on Kwame AI to have primary and secondary school students in remote parts of Ghana ask educational questions in local dialects like Twi without call charges and get curriculum-aligned answers.
This is to ensure that students not only in Ghana but across Africa have personalized, high-quality educational support daily, regardless of their limited or no access to the internet.
Source: My Joy Online
