Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer team up to fix these problems
A group of major philanthropies—including the Gates Foundation and Ballmer Group—just pledged $1 billion over 15 years to create AI tools for frontline workers like public defenders, social workers, and parole officers.
The goal? Help these everyday heroes serve vulnerable communities better by making their jobs a bit less overwhelming.
NextLadder Ventures will hand out grants and investments
To make this happen, the coalition set up NextLadder Ventures—a new org that'll hand out grants and investments to teams building AI solutions that boost economic mobility.
Ryan Rippel, who's worked on similar projects at the Gates Foundation, will lead the charge.
All profits NextLadder makes get recycled right back into funding more projects.
The plan is to work side-by-side with frontline workers
NextLadder's board includes reps from every founding funder.
They're teaming up with Anthropic (the folks behind Claude, an advanced language model), who'll chip in tech access and expertise worth $1.5 million a year.
The plan is to work side-by-side with frontline workers to tackle big issues like eviction, job loss, and health crises—using AI as a real-world problem solver.