Proto is proud to support the AI Connect Hackathon 2.0 as a sponsor, reinforcing our commitment to advancing AI solutions in Africa. Organized by Irembo in collaboration with the Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution (C4IR) Rwanda, this event brings together top AI developers to create solutions for real-world challenges in government services, fintech, healthcare, education, smart cities, climate change, and more.
Following the success of its inaugural edition, the hackathon will take place from March 28-30, 2025, at Irembo’s Campus in Kigali, Rwanda. In 48 hours, 20 teams will prototype AI-powered applications, with a strong emphasis on:
- Voice AI for inclusive access
- Agentic AI for automation and efficiency
- AI for African languages to bridge linguistic barriers
By fostering these areas, the hackathon aims to accelerate the adoption of AI-driven solutions that have a tangible impact across Africa.
ProtoAI: Advancing voice AI for underserved languages
Proto’s sponsorship aligns with its mission to make AI more accessible - especially in low-resourced languages. The ProtoAI engine, backed by ScaleAI, the Canadian government, and the Gates Foundation, is pioneering automated speech recognition (ASR) and text-to-speech (TTS) for ten local languages in Africa and Asia, including languages such as Kinyarwanda, Tagalog, Cebuano, and Oshiwambo.
This initiative is crucial at a time when generative AI is widening the linguistic gap on the internet, leaving thousands of languages behind. Proto addresses this disparity by:
- Building voice AI for 10 major but underserved languages across Africa and Asia
- Leveraging 500+ hours of professional spoken recordings for AI training
- Enhancing AI-driven services for governments, enterprises, and financial institutions
Proto’s AICX platform is already transforming industries like finance, government, healthcare, and transport, making AI-powered customer interactions seamless and linguistically inclusive. The company’s solutions are deployed in chat banking in Nigeria, electric vehicle troubleshooting in Malaysia, and consumer protection automation in the Philippines and sub-Saharan Africa.
