In the village of Ndodo, 40 kilometers south of the Malawian capital Lilongwe, farmers gather in the shade of an acacia tree as a voice over a smartphone tells them how to get rid of a weevil that’s destroying their sweet potato crops.
The tips offered by the app in the local language Chichewa is one of the first examples of how artificial intelligence is being used to aid subsistence farmers in some of the poorest parts of the world. Piloted by a Chicago-based nonprofit organization Opportunity International, the app called Ulangizi — which translates as "Advice” — works on WhatsApp and uses data from ChatGPT and the Malawian government’s English-language agricultural manual to answer questions or diagnose crop and farm animal diseases.
"The majority of our people do not know how to read or write,” said Anna Chimalizeni, a 36-year-old mother of three, who as a government farmer-support agent demonstrates the app to farmers. "I am there to help them write issues they have at their farms and read the response on their behalf. They also have a chance to listen to the response through voice notes which come in our own local language.”
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