Promoting AI partnership to serve public interest

Ahead of the AI Action Summit in Paris to be held from February 10-11, which brings together government and industry leaders to discuss the promise and challenges of AI, a group of 11 tech leaders have pledged to promote AI partnership to serve the public interest.

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The AI Action Summit is attended by nearly 100 heads of state and government and nearly 1,000 stakeholders from around 100 countries. The world’s 11 top tech leaders have agreed to promote the development of Current AI - a partnership that promises to bring tools, data and infrastructure for AI to serve the community.

According to the announcement of Current AI, the governments of France, Germany, Finland, Chile and Nigeria, as well as companies and charities, have pledged to contribute 400 million USD to the partnership.

In addition, Arthur Mensch, director of the startup Mistral AI, and Reid Hoffman, director of LinkedIn, affirmed that they will support Current AI’s mission.

French President Emmanuel Macron assessed that Paris’ efforts to contribute to the organisation’s mission will contribute to the development of the AI ecosystem in France and Europe, diversify the market and promote creativity and innovation worldwide.

Current AI founder Martin Tisne emphasised that they have recognised the harm of uncontrolled technological development and the transformational potential that technology brings when it meets the interests of the people. By supporting innovation that benefits everyone, Current AI can ensure that AI serves the public interest. Current AI is focused on areas including healthcare, linguistic diversity and science.

The organisation aims to raise $2.5 billion to provide access to more data for AI developers, providing open-source tools and infrastructure for programmers to build and develop systems to measure the impact of AI on social and environmental aspects.

Previously, with a commitment to promoting the development of responsible AI, the US technology giant Microsoft announced that it would open a fund to promote artificial intelligence development with the accompaniment of technology group G42 and the Mohamed bin Zayed AI University of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Microsoft said the project aims to promote standards and best practices for responsible AI in the Middle East as well as the Southern Hemisphere.

Last week, UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan signed an agreement with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron to build a mega data centre with a capacity of up to one gigawatt dedicated to artificial intelligence, with an investment of up to 50 billion USD. When completed, the site will become the largest “AI headquarters” in Europe.

There are currently more than 300 AI data centres in France. In addition, Canada’s Brookfield Fund will invest 20 billion EUR between now and 2030 to support the construction of data centers needed for the development of artificial intelligence in France.

Fifteen of the total 20 billion EUR will be earmarked for the establishment of new AI centres, including a “megaproject” in the northern French city of Cambrai, which is considered a crown jewel.

The pledges come ahead of the AI Action Summit, as warnings suggest that AI technology is growing out of control around the world.

World-leading computer scientist Yoshua Bengio has warned of the possibility of humans losing control of artificial intelligence systems in the future, as these artificial products develop a “will to survive”.

The emergence of high-performance, low-cost AI models has accelerated the race for safety, according to the 2018 Turing Award winner.

Yoshua Bengio warned that if AI is lost, “humanity could disappear in 10 years”. He called for governments to take leadership in regulating AI, ensuring that artificial intelligence serves the public interest. The call was made in the context that the world’s leading AI country, the US, has made many moves to “untie” the development of this technology under the administration of President Donald Trump.

NDO