Microsoft joins project on ethical artificial intelligence project

LOS ANGELES - Microsoft on Monday announced a $1 billion investment in an OpenAI ethical artificial intelligence project backed by Tesla's Elon Musk and Amazon. The partnership will be devoted to developing advanced AI models on Microsoft's Azure cloud computing platform while adhering to "shared principles on ethics and trust," the companies said in a joint release. OpenAI and Microsoft expressed a vision of "artificial general intelligence" (AGI) working with people to help solve daunting problems such as climate change. OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman said the goal of the effort is to allow artificial intelligence to be "deployed safely and securely and that its economic benefits are widely distributed." Microsoft will become the preferred partner for commercializing new "supercomputing" artificial intelligence technologies developed as part of the initiative.