About Crane AI Labs
Building sovereign AI infrastructure for the Global South
Our Mission
To ensure the AI revolution empowers, not marginalizes, by creating a world where every person has access to a powerful AI colleague that understands their language, culture, and context.
Our Vision
We envision a future where African communities have access to AI technologies that respect and enhance their cultural identity, operating seamlessly in local languages and understanding regional contexts.
Sovereign AI Infrastructure
Foundational Models
Creating tiny, efficient AI models optimized for low-cost devices. Our models work offline and are designed for low-connectivity regions, ensuring accessibility for all.
Software
Developing accessible applications and developer tools that enable the creation of culturally-relevant AI solutions. All our work is open source and community-driven.
Hardware
Long-term vision of custom, ultra-low-cost AI hardware designed specifically for the needs and constraints of Global South communities.
About Us
Our Collaborators
Google DeepMind
Partnership in developing Gemma-based models and advancing AI research for African languages.
Cohere Labs
Cohere For AI collaboration supporting open science and multilingual AI development.
Masakhane
Grassroots community advancing African NLP research and language technology development.
MsingiAI
Collaboration on AI infrastructure and research for East African language technologies.
Recent Updates
Swahili & Ganda Gemma Models Released
Released fine-tuned 1B parameter models for Swahili and Luganda languages, achieving state-of-the-art performance with unprecedented efficiency ratios on HuggingFace and Ollama.
Crane Models White Paper Released
The team at AI Studio Uganda released the Crane Models White Paper, introducing Uganda's first sovereign, culturally-grounded Large Language Models (LLMs) tailored to understand Ugandan languages, customs, and contexts.
Read on LinkedIn →BuildWithAI Kigali Presentation
Kato Steven Mubiru (Co-founder, Crane AI Labs & AI Studio Uganda) presented Project Crane & Crane-Gemma at BuildWithAI Kigali, sharing insights on making AI truly African.
View announcement on X →UCCB Dataset Launch
Launched the Ugandan Cultural Context Benchmark (UCCB), the first comprehensive evaluation benchmark for LLMs on Ugandan cultural knowledge, with contributions from Makerere University and Kyambogo University.
Research Partnerships
Get in Touch
Join Our Mission
We're building the future of AI for Africa. Connect with us to learn more or collaborate on advancing African language technologies.