Floods, earthquakes, conflicts, disease outbreaks, and other humanitarian emergencies are becoming an increasingly familiar reality around the world. Behind every response are humanitarian teams working against the clock to understand what is happening. They gather updates from news reports, social media, situation reports, government announcements, and partner messages. Every source offers another piece of the picture. As the volume of information grows, making sense of the situation and making timely decisions becomes increasingly difficult.
During the recent 2026 Venezuela earthquake response, information emerged by the minute. New reports described damaged infrastructure, affected communities, and urgent humanitarian needs. Responders needed reliable information quickly so they could understand the situation, coordinate with partners, and decide where support was needed most. Reading through hundreds of updates while responding to a crisis is a challenge no humanitarian team should face alone.
The challenge of navigating large volumes of humanitarian information is not new. It is one of the reasons Data Friendly Space created the GANNET Virtual Assistant in 2024. Built by humanitarians for humanitarians, it was designed to help organizations turn trusted information into clear, actionable insights.
Over the years, the Virtual Assistant has continued to grow alongside the humanitarian community. Users have shared feedback, tested new features, and helped improve the platform so it better reflects the realities of humanitarian work. Every conversation, suggestion, and lesson learned has shaped how it works today. Today, we are taking the next step in that journey.
Making the Virtual Assistant free reflects our commitment to ensuring that trusted humanitarian AI is accessible to everyone working in humanitarian response. Too often, the organizations closest to affected communities have the least access to tools like this. By removing the cost barrier, we hope local and national responders, alongside international organizations, can access the same trusted insights when they need them most.
Every humanitarian response is built on collaboration. By making the GANNET Virtual Assistant freely available, we hope more organizations, researchers, and responders can access trusted humanitarian insights and make better-informed decisions when they matter most.
If you work in humanitarian action, we invite you to explore GANNET. Use it in your work, and share your feedback with us.
Sign up here: https://app.gannet.ai/sign-in. If you’d like to keep GANNET free for humanitarian organizations, you can support us by donating here: https://givebutter.com/gannet
