Meta-IBM alliance promotes 'open' approach to AI development
Artificial intelligence is one of the technologies that's seen the most growth this year, but as a certain famous arachnid knows, with great power comes great responsibility. As AI continues to grow, different sectors, organizations, and companies are calling for stronger regulations and transparency regarding the development and use of AI. Meta and IBM are now allied in this cause.
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The two companies are joining more than 50 other organizations -- as part of an international community of technology developers, researchers, and adopters -- to push for advancing open and responsible AI.
"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, Meta's president of global affairs. "The AI Alliance brings together researchers, developers, and companies to share tools and knowledge that can help us all make progress whether models are shared openly or not."
The AI Alliance brands itself as a collaborative platform guided by open innovation, ethical practice, and global inclusivity principles. It aims to create member-driven working groups -- comprised of experts from various fields -- focused on AI-related topics such as security, social good, governance, and open technology.
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"The AI Alliance is another milestone in providing openly shareable software, data, and other assets essential to developing transparent, advanced, and trustworthy AI," said Jim Zemlin, executive director at the Linux Foundation.
To foster responsible AI, the AI Alliance plans to create benchmarks, standards, and tools -- including a catalog for safety, security, and trust. Its plans include enhancing the AI ecosystem to address global issues like climate change and social issues like education, along with educating the public and policymakers on the risks and benefits of AI.
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The partnership seeks to transcend sectors, with participants from the industry, government, research, and academia, signaling a unified approach to the development of safe AI. Participating organizations include AMD, Intel, Red Hat, Hugging Face, Oracle, Dell, NASA, Yale University, Cleveland Clinic, and Harvard University.
Notably missing from the AI Alliance are Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI, arguably the three biggest players in generative AI development worldwide. These companies have already published different goals for the development of responsible AI, along with their own efforts to achieve them, but there's at least one significant difference between these two efforts. The AI Alliance is focused on open-source AI development, while Microsoft, Google, and OpenAI support the use of closed-source AI models.
"Open innovation is all but essential to ensuring equitable access and collaboration around AI and root this technology in principles that adhere to the strongest standards of diversity, trust, and ingenuity," said Kevin Murphy, NASA's chief science data officer. "NASA is excited about efforts like the AI Alliance to continue enabling the global community of scientists, researchers, and practitioners committed to responsible, trustworthy AI technologies."