Amazon, DeepMind/Google, Facebook, IBM and Microsoft create the Partnership on Artificial Intelligence to Benefit People and Society (Partnership on AI) to advance public understanding of AI technologies and formulate best practices.
The industry leaders have created the non-profit organisation and the objective of the Partnership on AI is to address opportunities and challenges with AI technologies to benefit people and society. It will create an open platform for discussion and engagement and importantly support research and recommend best practices in areas including ethics, privacy, transparency and interoperability.
“The possibilities for positively impacting a global society with advances in AI are numerous, ranging from connectivity, healthcare, and transportation. As researchers in industry, we take very seriously the trust people have in us to ensure advances are made with the utmost consideration for human values,” said Yann LeCun, director of Facebook AI Research.
“By openly collaborating with our peers and sharing findings, we aim to push new boundaries every day, not only within Facebook, but across the entire research community. To do so in partnership with these companies who share our vision will help propel the entire field forward in a thoughtful responsible way.”
The organisation’s founding members will each contribute financial and research resources to the partnership and will share leadership with independent third-parties, including academics, user group advocates and industry domain experts.
Francesca Rossi, AI ethics researcher, IBM Research, added: “Over the past five years, we’ve seen tremendous advances in the deployment of AI and cognitive computing technologies, ranging from useful consumer apps to transforming some of the world’s most complex industries, including healthcare, financial services, commerce, and the Internet of Things. This partnership will provide consumer and industrial users of cognitive systems a vital voice in the advancement of the defining technology of this century – one that will foster collaboration between people and machines to solve some of the world’s most enduring problems – in a way that is both trustworthy and beneficial.