Chalkbot

Rural teachers and children miss out on technological solutions because they 1) don't have the hardware, 2) don't have the digital skills, 3) there is no 4G in the area 4) even if they are given a smartphone and taught how to use it and have 4G, they cannot afford the data to use it.

I am sick of listening to people sitting in their ivory towers telling me how they are developing apps for these teachers and students, and buying iPAds and smartphones to help them teach and learn. This is completely useless for the reasons above and I think mostly these are vanity projects - look at me how clever am I to make a smartphone AI app.

In fact it's much more difficult to make an AI app which works on an old Nokia with a broken screen on the slopes of Kilimanjaro where there is no internet access.

Chalkbot is also useful for those who cannot read or write or disabled children so can benefit even the most disenfranchised. It uses only a local phone call, so it will work even on a land line.

Chalkbot uses AWS and OpenAI archiatecture

User calls a local phone number supplied by AWS Connect. Then AWS Lex provides voice-to-text capability. AWS Lambda makes the call to ChatGPT through the OpenAI API. ChatGPT generates the response and AWS Polly converts text into life-like speech. AWS DynamoDB traps the conversation which allows the project team to advise the Education Ministry what help the teachers re asking for and therefore how to improve their teacher training programme.

There is a video here which explains it.

There is a lack of support for teachers in remote areas of East Africa. They are underserved by everyone because they are hard to reach. They get paid a pittance and usually have no electricity, nothing beyond a blackboard and chalk and huge class sizes.

Because they live in areas where there is no internet they are left behind when it come to technology. Sometimes well-meaning organisations give them WiFi or tablets or smartphones but that is not a sustainable solution because when they get lost, broken, stolen who will replace or fix them? Who will pay for internet data when the project has finished?

This solution is sustainable because they don't need any new technology, no new skills, no internet, no data costs. Students can revise subjects, even learn new subjects. Teachers can get help with teaching. Anyone who cannot read or write but can speak English still has access to the internet through Chalkbot and therefore is connected to the outside world.

I am my own team. I have found a partner in Uganda (girl Up Uganda) who would like to pilot it. I will go out and run the project with their teachers and students in the schools and communities they serve. Girl Up Uganda will be the implementing partners.

I have worked with rural populations in Tanzania and of course have knowledge of Uganda. I will be led by Girl Up Uganda as they are the local experts.

Chalkbot has been ready to pilot for about 6 months but I have had some setbacks in the funding and finding good implementing partners.

I started this project in March 2023. I attended a big AI Conference in London where I spent two days finding an organisation which would do the coding for me for free. That was difficult but in the end I found a consultancy in Cambridge. It took a long time for them to do the coding as they had lots of paying projects to do and mine was therefore always at the bottom of their list.

Eventually they completed it and it was tested and then I started looking for an implementation partner and funding. This is the stage I am stuck on. I am a team of one - there is nobody here helping me. This has also been a challenge - to do everything without help or support.

I can give you the phone number of Chalkbot if you wish, and you can see/hear for yourself how it works.

I've been trying so hard to get this piloted that I am also out of energy and wondering whether all this effort is going to go to waste. BBC Innovation are interested in covering Chalkbot when it's first piloted as they recognise that it is the only AI tool which works on basic phones and without the internet.

I am almost out of energy trying to pilot Chalkbot. I would like some help to reduce the latency when using Chalkbot and I would appreciate connections with possible implementing partners in a country where AWS Connect is available. In Africa this is only Uganda or South Africa.

I am 59, British, female, going grey - I am pretty much the opposite of what people imagine when they think of an AI innovator. I don't fit the ideal but I have a solution that will make a big impact on rural populations.

one - me

15 months

The implementing team will be me (one white woman) and a bunch of Ugandans.

This tool needs to be funded by international development donors. Once piloted, it can be used in any project which operates in rural or urban areas of developing countries.

This is not a money-making concern. It is open-source software developed for poor rural populations of developing countries.