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00:00 "Please ask your question after the tone."
00:02 Nigerian resident David Diwa is using an artificial intelligence-powered mobile phone service
00:08 to help him find a new career.
00:10 "I can leave this thing."
00:12 "Sometimes I feel I should leave my carpenter job and start something else because of my
00:16 weak eyesight.
00:17 Sometimes I'm feeling to leave it."
00:19 "So I ask the AI questions about businesses and they give me ideas on how to make it grow."
00:24 "And give me the answer to..."
00:26 The service was launched in Nigeria last month by Canada-based Viamo and allows anyone, even
00:33 in locations with no internet, to access AI technology.
00:37 Viamo uses a traditional handset to tap into local mobile phone networks to send commands
00:43 or requests for information through SMS or voice calls.
00:49 It works like any other AI chatbot and can be used by illiterate people since it can
00:53 be prompted by voice.
00:55 And because it saves on data, it's also cheaper.
00:59 Glory Akabu is Viamo's Nigeria regional platform manager.
01:03 "We understand that these people are disconnected because they are currently offline, do not
01:11 have a mobile phone to access information and also they do not have a smartphone that
01:17 they can use to access information on the internet.
01:21 Most of them, even when they have a smartphone, they are not able to purchase data that they
01:26 can use to get connected to the internet."
01:30 Visually impaired Nigerian resident Kehinde Olutubo-san says the service has been uplifting.
01:36 "I was finding it so hard."
01:39 He says he used to ask people to use their smartphones to find answers to his questions.
01:44 "For people who are not that financially buoyant, they still have this opportunity
01:52 to use even as little as 10 Naira to ask a lot of questions that will actually benefit
01:59 them.
02:00 I'm so happy."
02:01 Viamo says the device is targeted to the world's poorest and most remote communities.
02:07 It's supported by development agencies in the United States and the United Kingdom,
02:12 among others, and has partnered with UNICEF to provide information on HIV, tropical diseases,
02:18 nutrition, water, sanitation and hygiene.