Google will give away about $25 million globally next year to humanitarian and environmental projects seeking to use artificial intelligence (AI) to speed up and grow their efforts. The'AI Impact Challenge' is meant to inspire organizations to ask Google for help in machine learning, a form of AI in which computers analyze large datasets to make predictions or detect patterns and anomalies. Google's rivals Microsoft Corp and Amazon.com Inc tout'AI for good' initiatives too. Google announced on Monday that it would grant about $25 million globally next year to humanitarian and environmental projects seeking to use artificial intelligence (AI) to speed up and grow their efforts.

After helping to launch the Partnership on AI with Google, Facebook and others; and doubling down on AI research, today Microsoft unveiled a new initiative that points to how it plans to target specific verticals in what can potentially be a very nebulous field -- while also raising the public image of AI as some grow concerned about the implications of its encroaching influence. The event was led by Harry Shum, Microsoft's EVP of its AI and Research Group, along with Emma Williams, GM of Bing Studio; Chris Bishop, Distinguished Scientist and Laboratory Director at Microsoft Research Cambridge; and Eric Horvitz, technical fellow and director of Microsoft Research Labs. Microsoft's R&D labs in Cambridge, UK (the first Microsoft set up outside of the US) are 20 years old this year, and Microsoft is unveiling some other new programs in the area -- including a new Microsoft Research AI group; a new "Aether Advisory Panel" (an acronym for "AI and Ethics in Engineering and Research") that will report directly to senior management; a new partnership with the Amsterdam Machine Learning Lab; and a few new experimental products that are using AI, such as a new PowerPoint Presentation Translator. This is an interesting and important twist on the AI challenge: many worry about how AI will replace humans, and/or will quietly help evade ethical and privacy oversights -- "societal angst" as Microsoft's Emma Williams, the GM of Bing Studio and its "EQ Expert", put it (EQ: emotional quotient).

After helping to launch the Partnership on AI with Google, Facebook and others; and doubling down on AI research, today Microsoft unveiled a new initiative that points to how it plans to target specific verticals in what can potentially be a very nebulous field -- while also raising the public image of AI as some grow concerned about the implications of its encroaching influence. Today, the company announced AI for Earth, a new program that will be dedicated to AI-based projects in the areas of agriculture, water, biodiversity and climate change, where Microsoft proposes to donate up to $2 million in Microsoft tools, services and training per project to help them get a leg up. It will be led by Microsoft Chief Environmental Scientist Lucas Joppa. AI for Earth will not include money grants as such -- although as recent investments from Microsoft Ventures show (and also its acquisitions), the company is also willing to put money where its mouth is, and to take equity in the most interesting projects, too. This program could help create a funnel to identify and follow some of the more interesting projects (and get them using Microsoft services to boot).