Five of the world's most prominent tech companies this week announced the formation of a new group to guide the development of artificial intelligence.
The nonprofit Partnership on Artificial Intelligence to Benefit People and Society includes Amazon, Google, Facebook, IBM and Microsoft. Those founding members will contribute financial and research resources, while the group's board will be equally divided between corporate and non-corporate members.
The non-corporate members of the board will include nonprofit leaders, ethics and policy specialists and members of the academic community.
"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," Facebook director of AI research Yann LeCun said in a statement.
The Partnership on AI plans to publish research under an open license on numerous topics, from AI system reliability and collaboration with people to its impacts on ethics, privacy and transparency.
The group aims to study and develop best practices for AI and advance public understanding of the technology, but does not intend to lobby policymakers about AI laws.
It also expects to add additional members "in the near future" and said that discussions with professional and scientific groups — notably the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence and the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence — are ongoing.
"The time is ripe for a concerted job, of the kind this partnership promises, towards fostering the public’s understanding of how AI will augment and benefit our lives, and facilitating thoughtful dialogue about the responsible uses of this technology," said AAAI President Subbarao Kambhampati.