Tech giants form 'ethical AI' supergroup

An industry-wide organisation including five Silicon Valley giants has been formed to promote the fair and ethical development of artificial intelligence technologies. The organisation aims to "conduct research, recommend best practices, and publish research" rather that directly lobby legislators, and will focus on "ethics, fairness and inclusivity; transparency, privacy, and interoperability; collaboration between people and AI systems; and the trustworthiness, reliability and robustness of the technology". The group - known as the Partnership on Artificial Intelligence to Benefit People and Society - includes Facebook, Google, Amazon, Microsoft and IBM, with academic and non-profit organisations expected to join in the near future. "Over the past five years, we've seen tremendous advances in the deployment of AI and cognitive computing technologies," said IBM AI ethics researcher, Francesca Rossi, "ranging from useful consumer apps to transforming some of the world's most complex industries, including healthcare, financial services, commerce and the Internet of Things." "This partnership will provide consumer and industrial users of cognitive systems a vital voice in the advancement of the defining technology of this century - one that will foster collaboration between people and machines to solve some of the world's most enduring problems - in a way that is both trustworthy and beneficial."