Facebook, Amazon, IBM, Microsoft, and Google - five leaders of the digital industry with sizable investments on the development on artificial intelligence, have collaborated to launch "The Partnership on Artificial Intelligence to Benefit People and Society" today.
The main objective of the partnership is to foster a better comprehension of the public on artificial intelligence and to develop standards and best practices on transparency and ethics for researchers to use as guides.
Artificial Intelligence or AI basically, is intelligence that is manifested by machines. In the related field, an ideal "intelligent" machine is considered to be a flexible and rational agent that understands its environment and takes actions accordingly. That is a concept not many people can grasp or take in a positive light. A majority of the public has the notion that AI is a daunting, scary creation and can eliminate entire industries that employ people and create wealth for only those in control of it. Some even think that this will lead to an even more frightening outcome if fully developed, something "Terminator-esque".
The Partnership on Artificial Intelligence to Benefit People and Society or Partnership on AI or PAI, is built upon such notions.
"We recognize we have to take the field forward in a thoughtful and positive and implicitly ethical way," said Mustafa Suleyman, Partnership on AI co-chair and Google DeepMind co-founder. "The positive impact of AI will depend not only on the quality of our algorithms, but on the level of public engagement, on transparency, and ethical discussion that takes place around it."
"This is urgent and important work. This is work that supersedes the competitive concerns of the companies [in the partnership]," said Francesca Rossi, who researches on AI ethics at IBM Research.
A major component of the group's mission is to suppress any fear or negative assumption and at the same time, create a formal framework for sharing ideas about transparency and ethics between organizations that work on developing and researching the technology of AI while teaching the public how the technology works.
