Amazon, Google, Facebook, IBM and Microsoft join forces to develop the future of AI.
Amazon, Google’s London-based Deep Mind arm, Facebook, IBM and Microsoft have announced the creation of the Partnership on Artificial Intelligence to Benefit People and Society, a nonprofit organization to advance public understanding of artificial intelligence technologies (AI) and shape AI best practices. They are inviting academics, non-profits, and specialists in policy and ethics to join the project in an effort to “address opportunities and challenges with AI technologies to benefit people and society.”
Experts will conduct research, recommend best practices and publish findings under an open license in such areas as ethics, fairness and inclusivity; transparency, privacy and interoperability; collaboration between people and AI systems; and the trustworthiness, reliability and robustness of the technology, according to the press release.
While the partnership boasts some impressive players, notably absent are tech powerhouses like Apple Inc. and OpenAI, an artificial intelligence research firm led by PayPal/Tesla founder Elon Musk.
Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos recently acknowledged his support for AI, announcing "It's hard to overstate how big of an impact it's going to have on society over the next 20 years.” Amazon has leveraged its own AI tool, Alexa, to boost sales on Amazon Prime, even offering exclusive deals on its 2016 Prime Day for customers who used Alexa to place their orders, as Innovative Retail Technologies reported.
A recent article in Forbes addressed the potential of AI for retail, which is transforming the personalization revolution to help retailers transition into a world where consumers are always connected, increasingly mobile, increasingly social, and have a wealth of choices about where they can make their purchases.
As the Forbes article explained, “Machine learning has enabled computers to curate product recommendations without needing human intervention. Taking top players such as Amazon or Google, for instance, their automated systems can read digital user reviews, past searches or purchases, and present book or other product recommendations automatically. With little effort, retailers that utilize automated AI capabilities are likely to see an increase in customer engagement and sales simply by using the data already available to them.”
The new Partnership for AI, however, will also look for greater applications of AI that can benefit society and humanity as a whole, at least according to the press release, which states: “AI technologies hold tremendous potential to improve many aspects of life, ranging from healthcare, education, and manufacturing to home automation and transportation. Through rigorous research, the development of best practices, and an open and transparent dialogue, the founding members of the Partnership on AI hope to maximize this potential and ensure it benefits as many people as possible.”
