Nonprofit Current AI Is Building Open AI Infrastructure for All
Nonprofit Current AI is developing open AI infrastructure to make technology accessible to everyone, regardless of language or region.
Current AI, a nonprofit founded in February 2025, is racing to build an open and public AI infrastructure that is free for everyone. The organization aims to ensure that AI technology serves the public interest rather than just private companies.
First Step: Suno Sutra Device
At the India AI Summit in February, Current AI partnered with Bhashini, the Indian government's AI language division, to create Suno Sutra. The pocket-sized, offline device runs AI in 22 Indian languages and requires no internet connection. It is open-source, allowing developers to build upon it.
Funding and Support
The French government seeded Current AI with $100 million, joined by the Ford Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, DeepMind, and Salesforce, bringing total committed funding to $400 million. The organization operates as a public-private partnership.
Initial Grants
Last month, Current AI allocated $3.2 million in grants to four organizations across Kenya, Lebanon, and the Brazilian Amazon. Masakhane in Kenya is building AI datasets for over 50 African languages; Lebanon's Institute for Worldmaking is digitizing Arab cultural history; Brazil's Portal sem Porteiras is developing offline AI tools for indigenous communities; and Kenya's African Internet Rights Alliance is creating audit tools for AI accountability.
Open-Source Chatbot
Earlier this month in Geneva, Current AI, in collaboration with Hugging Face, Mozilla, and MIT Media Lab, launched Alpha Chat, an open-source AI chatbot assembled in seven weeks.
Partnership with Sakana AI
Current AI struck a deal with Tokyo-based startup Sakana AI to build a shared open-source AI stack supporting Japanese language and culture as well as communities in the Global South.
Data Ownership
The nonprofit emphasizes that data should remain under community control, not in the hands of Silicon Valley companies. AI models and data are stored locally, and involved communities can halt the process at any time.
