Lead story · Food and farming · Kenya

How a Kenyan farmer's daughter uses AI and simple text messages to warn farmers about pests

Green hillside farm plots in Limuru, Kiambu County, Kenya. — Small farm plots in Limuru, Kiambu County, Kenya. This is not a Farmer Lifeline site. Photo: McKay Savage, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Farmer Lifeline's solar-powered cameras watch small farms for pests and disease, then send an SMS that works on any phone, so women farmers with basic handsets can act in time.

4,000+

Smallholder farmers reached in Kenya in 2025, according to the company's funder One Young World.

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By Uyen · 6 min read

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A city view of Chang-dong in Seoul: a tall glass tower above office and apartment blocks, railway tracks in front and mountains behind.

Accessibility · South Korea

AI helps Korean care staff understand challenging behavior

In Seoul, cameras now keep the behavior logs that care staff once wrote by hand, so specialists can work out what lies behind a person's distress.

Deployed · From the ITU 2025 report · 6 min read

A doctor in scrubs holds a handheld ultrasound probe to a seated patient's back; the scan image shows on a tablet below.

Health · Benin, Mali, South Africa

How a team in Benin is testing AI that reads lung scans for tuberculosis

In a hospital study in Cotonou, an AI that reads handheld lung ultrasound caught 82% of TB cases, short of the WHO's 90% target for a triage test. A five-year trial in Benin, Mali and South Africa will show whether it works in local clinics.

Pilot · From the ITU 2026 report · 6 min read

Wide panorama of the Islamic University of Gaza campus buildings in 2012.

Education · Palestine

How Gaza's universities keep teaching, and an offline AI idea for blackouts

With most campuses damaged or destroyed, Gaza's universities moved classes online and into temporary learning spaces. Al-Aqsa University has also proposed an offline AI tutor on solar-powered mini servers, a design still looking for partners.

Concept · From the ITU 2025 report · 6 min read

College Hall, a long sandstone building with arched windows, on the American University of Beirut campus, with palm trees and a path.

Health · Lebanon, Jordan

A WhatsApp chatbot from Beirut helps people find health answers from trusted sources

HIBA answers everyday health questions by text or voice note, in 28 languages, using only curated WHO, IFRC and UNICEF material, and it will not diagnose. It was offered in Lebanon's displacement centers during the 2024 war and is still a small pilot with no independent results.

Pilot · From the ITU 2025 report · 6 min read

A small white single-story rural health center with a veranda and a flag pole, in dry open bush land under a blue sky.

Health · Zambia

Zambian midwives get an AI second opinion in cervical screening

Dawa Health says its small in-clinic device, which sorts cervical photos without internet, has helped screen more than 3,500 women since late 2025. Accuracy results that outsiders can check are still to come, from a planned validation with UNFPA and Zambia's Ministry of Health.

Pilot · From the ITU 2026 report · 6 min read

Aerial view of central Goma in 2015: a wide road with cars, a green roundabout, tin-roofed buildings and Lake Kivu with hills behind.

Public services · Democratic Republic of the Congo

Can AI help spot hate speech on community radio? A pilot in eastern DR Congo

A 2025 pilot recorded and transcribed broadcasts from ten community stations in Goma and Bukavu, flagged possible hate speech for people to check, and answered with radio programs. No results are public yet, and a research phase with ETH Zurich runs to 2027.

Pilot · From the ITU 2025 report · 6 min read

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From the editor

Why this paper exists

AI is one of the most powerful tools of our time. We believe its greatest promise lies in what it can do for humankind: caring for people, protecting our environment, and helping build a kinder, better world.

The good news is that it is already happening. Around the world, nurses, farmers, teachers, researchers and small teams are quietly using AI to solve real problems for real people. We are honored to share their stories, so that their work is seen and more of us are inspired to use AI for good.

Uyen, editor

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