Skip to content
Artificial intelligence with social impact.
An African technology initiative to create open, practical AI systems for community benefit.

WHAT WE DO

About Sunbird AI

Sunbird AI is a non-profit organization that develops artificial intelligence systems for social impact in Africa.

Led by a team with extensive experience of AI systems in Africa, we aim to help social initiatives, public institutions and policymakers develop new AI technology for their own needs.

We are physically located in Kampala, Uganda.

Our Approach

Practical Systems

Projects at Sunbird AI result in practical systems being deployed.

Open Source

Projects are open source so that anyone can reuse or extend them.

Decision Making

We have a particular focus on creating AI systems that can help with decision-making in public policy.

African Technology

We aim to build African technical capacity with a team that understands both the technology and the local context.

Our Projects

Translation and Speech

People who don’t speak one of the world’s major languages have difficulty accessing resources and in making their views heard. In Uganda, for example, over forty languages are spoken …
Read More

Environmental Sensing

Urban development can come with new public health hazards. Noise pollution, for example, has serious effects on health, yet there is very little data available to authorities to understand the scale …
Read More

Electrification Planning in Northern Uganda

Most Ugandan households do not have an electricity connection. To help electrification planning in Lamwo District, Sunbird AI is working with GIZ and the Ugandan Ministry of Energy on satellite-based data about unelectrified settlements.
Read More

COVID-19 Social Media Analysis

We worked on language technology for social benefit with Ugandan health authorities in 2020, at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. The public health emergency required new systems and policies ...
Read More