The pioneering organization was awarded a $500,000 grant from Open AI to explore how artificial intelligence can increase its impact
ATLANTA, July 9, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Operation HOPE has become the first financial literacy nonprofit organization to embed artificial intelligence into its model. Open AI awarded its first-ever grant to a community-based organization with $500,000 to help build out Operation HOPE's financial coaching and support services. The grant was announced in December 2023 during the HOPE Global Forums | Annual Meeting in Atlanta. Operation HOPE CEO John Hope Bryant and Open AI CEO Sam Altman also announced the formation of a first-of-its-kind AI Ethics Council, which held its inaugural meeting on June 28th.
To date, Operation HOPE has deployed artificial intelligence to:
The partnership evolved when Mr. Altman and Mr. Bryant joined together for a listening tour at Clark Atlanta University in the spring of 2024. They determined that they share concerns about bias and discrimination in AI, yet also believe that AI can overwhelmingly positively impact lives and create new economic opportunities for people of color. By working with HBCUs and civil rights leaders, who have a rich history as shapers and guardians of civil liberties—along with deep experience in understanding and guiding ethical decision-making during historical-critical junctures— the AI Ethics Council is designed to help ensure the inclusivity of marginalized populations and people of color during this economic revolution.
At the inaugural meeting, James Hairston, Open AI's Head of International Policy and Partnerships, briefed members on the current state of AI, including its challenges and opportunities. Mr. Bryant shared that he will be convening a meeting of tech leaders to advance issues important to the council, and announced the Council website will go live July 1, 2024. "I see this website as our first stake in the ground. Its substance will grow, expand, and deepen over time. Transparency will be a hallmark. I encourage all citizens, here and abroad, to get informed and educated around what AI really is and isn't," said Mr. Bryant. "As a council, we aim to focus our attention on the needle we can help move: expanding inclusive opportunity around our shared future, for everyone, as it relates to AI."
A full replay of the conversation between Mr. Bryant and Mr. Altman at the Hope Global Forums can be viewed here.
About Operation HOPE
Since 1992, Operation HOPE has been moving America from civil rights to "silver rights" with the mission of making free enterprise and capitalism work for the underserved – disrupting poverty for millions of low and moderate-income youth and adults across the nation. Through its community uplift model, HOPE Inside, which received the 2016 Innovator of the Year recognition by American Banker magazine, Operation HOPE has served more than 4 million individuals and directed more than $3.2 billion in economic activity into disenfranchised communities—turning check-cashing customers into banking customers, renters into homeowners, small business dreamers into small business owners, minimum wage workers into living wage consumers, and uncertain disaster victims into financially empowered disaster survivors. For more information: OperationHOPE.org. Follow the HOPE conversation on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn.
Operation HOPE Contacts:
Kevin Boucher, Operation HOPE
[email protected]
Lalohni Campbell, Per/Se Media Group
[email protected]
404-593-7145
SOURCE Operation HOPE, Inc.
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