Microsoft, Facebook And Others Team Up To Ensure AI Won’t Enslave Humanity

An alliance consisting of five of the biggest tech companies in the world has just been formed. Their goal: To convince people that artificial intelligence will not enslave humanity. To this end, Facebook, Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and IBM have created a nonprofit organization with the sole purpose of pursuing research in AI technology in the best possible way.

The new nonprofit will be called Partnership on AI, The Verge reports. It will be co-headed by Eric Horvitz, the chief at Microsoft Research and Mustafa Suleyman, a co-founder of DeepMind. DeepMind is a subsidiary of Google and specializes in machine learning. The group is also discussing the possibility of Apple joining up, but the notoriously secretive company has yet to decide.

In any case, “POA” is meant to fulfill two distinct goals. One of them is to educate people about AI in order to allay their fears about it. It’s no secret that a lot of people are afraid of what machines capable of learning can do. It doesn’t help that Microsoft founder Bill Gates and noted Physicist Stephen Hawking have their reservations about the technology as well.

The other is the advancement of AI technology in the best manner possible by establishing good practices. This means bringing in not only experts in the field of programming and engineering but also in philosophy and ethics.

The significance of this alliance cannot be understated. As Tech Crunch reports, all five companies combined possess the largest pool of data on the planet. With the world being as interconnected as it is today, data has become just as, if not more valuable than actual money. By teaming up and setting down rules on the best practices of AI technology, with which data is an invaluable asset, “POA” will be instrumental in shaping the future of the internet and technology in general.