Amazon, Facebook, IBM, Microsoft and Google’s DeepMind subsidiary have agreed to create a non-profit organisation that will work to advance public understanding of artificial intelligence technologies (AI) and come up with best practices for the sector. The alliance, dubbed the Partnership on Artificial Intelligence to Benefit People and Society, has a stated aim to "conduct research, recommend best practices and publish research under an open licence in areas such as ethics, fairness and inclusivity; transparency, privacy, and interoperability; collaboration between people and AI systems; and the trustworthiness, reliability and robustness of the technology."
In a joint statement, the partners said AI technologies have great potential to improve many aspects of life, ranging from healthcare, education and manufacturing to home automation and transportation. They were also keen to underline that the alliance does not intend to lobby government or other policymaking bodies. There will be equal representation of corporate and non-corporate members on the partnership’s board, which will invite academics, non-profits and specialists in policy and ethics to join up. The partnership said it's already in discussions with professional and scientific bodies such as the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI), as well as non-profit research groups including the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence (AI2).
