Techs biggest names are working together to regulate AI research

Artificial intelligence is hitting its stride, already giving us machines that can drive themselves, talk to us, fight in our wars, perform our surgeries and beat humanity's best in a game of Go or Jeopardy. Recently five companies at the forefront of AI research met to discuss these advancements – all of which have been rapid, few of these solutions existed even five years ago – and figure out how to regulate even more powerful systems in the future – the near future. Researchers from Facebook, Alphabet, Amazon, Microsoft and IBM are looking at the practical consequences of AI, such as how it will impact transportation, jobs and welfare and while the group doesn't have a name or an official credo its general goal is to ensure AI research focuses on benefiting people, not harming them. In 2015, Elon Musk, Stephen Hawking, the founders of Google DeepMind and dozens of other researchers signed an open letter calling for robust investigations into the impact of AI and ways to ensure it remains a benign tool at humanity's disposal. But the industry partnership is notable because it represents a renewed, active effort among disparate tech companies – although interestingly, not the regulators – to address some of the ethical and moral issues posed by AI. The companies are expected to announce the group officially later this month even though the consortium could grow in the meantime since Google DeepMind has asked to participate separately from Alphabet, its parent company.