Tech Industry Forms New Alliance to Advance Open, Responsible AI
A new technology alliance called the AI Alliance launched Tuesday with the goal of advancing openness, responsibility, and collaboration in artificial intelligence research and development.
The alliance brings together over 50 leading technology companies, academic institutions, and research organizations as founding members, including tech giants IBM and Meta who are serving as co-founders of the group.
Other major companies taking part include AMD, Intel, Oracle, Sony, and Dell Technologies. Top academic institutions and research labs participating include Stanford, MIT, Harvard, Oxford, Carnegie Mellon, NASA, and CERN.
“The progress we continue to witness in AI is a testament to open innovation and collaboration across communities of creators, scientists, academics and business leaders,” said Arvind Krishna, IBM’s CEO, in the joint announcement. “This is a pivotal moment in defining the future of AI.”
The alliance aims to create an open community to enable AI developers and researchers to accelerate innovation while ensuring scientific rigor, trust, safety, diversity and economic competitiveness.
“We believe it’s better when AI is developed openly – more people can access the benefits, build innovative products and work on safety,” said Nick Clegg, President of Global Affairs at Meta.
The group plans to launch projects around developing benchmarks and standards for responsible AI development, creating diverse and capable foundation models, supporting the hardware ecosystem, global skills building, and educational initiatives.
“Open innovation has always been a catalyst for progress,” said Matt Hicks, CEO of Red Hat. “The launch of the AI Alliance marks a visionary milestone, uniting industry leaders with a shared responsibility to shape the future and advance open innovation.”
“Pursuing open innovation levels the playing field, allowing everyone to share in the benefits of generative AI,” said Jennifer Chayes, Dean at UC Berkeley’s College of Computing, Data Science, and Society.
The alliance has outlined several key initial projects and priorities as it kicks off its efforts.
“The AI Alliance will begin its work with the formation of member-driven working groups across all major topical areas,” the alliance said in its announcement. “The Alliance will also establish a governing board and technical oversight committee dedicated to advancing the above project areas, as well as establishing overall project standards and guidelines.”
Additionally, the alliance aims to host events to explore AI use cases and showcase how members are utilizing AI responsibly. It also plans to partner with government and non-profit initiatives doing related work on AI safety, skills development, and policy issues.
“This is just the beginning,” said Arvind Krishna of IBM. “By coming together in this alliance, we can pool our collective knowledge and resources to steer AI innovation in ways that foster transparency, openness, and trust – and truly benefit all of society.”