Dr Paul Atherton is the Executive Director of Fab AI, a non-profit which brings together the work of Fab Inc. – an education and international development advisory firm, and AI-for-Education.org – a platform to guide the development of AI for education for low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).
An economist and former FCDO country lead, Paul launched Fab in 2017 to improve education systems through better data architecture, data-driven decision-making, climate-smart planning and a range of cutting-edge technologies like GIS systems and algorithmic models.
As a pioneer in the use of technology to solve systemic challenges, Paul quickly saw both the opportunities and the risks that AI represented for education in LMICs. His vision of a platform to connect educators, local developers, policymakers and big tech was shared by Gates Foundation and supported by FCDO and Jacobs Foundation.
Fab’s work on AI benchmarks for education, AI product evaluations and efficacy studies is designed to create a practical framework to help governments, funders and developers distinguish promising AI-enabled EdTech from the rest.