Google, Facebook and Amazon form council to decide AI ethics
Source: James Titcomb

The world’s biggest artificial intelligence companies, including Facebook and Google, have joined forces to mould the ethical rules that will govern how robots and computer programs behave in the future.

The Partnership on Artificial Intelligence to Benefit People and Society, a group that also includes Amazon, IBM and Microsoft as members, is a joint effort that its founders said would ensure that AI is developed to help humanity.

Fears have been raised that the advances being made in artificial intelligence are increasingly concentrated in the hands of a cluster of deep-pocketed technology companies. But the tech companies who back the partnership said that it would allow them to be transparent and ethical in developing the technology.

Mustafa Suleyman, the co-founder of Google's DeepMind, will co-chair the partnership's board Credit: Rex Features

While its backers believe the rise of AI will allow us to cure disease, end poverty, reduce road accidents and slow climate change, critics say progress is being prioritised with little thought for the implications, and that this could have worrying consequences.

The Partnership, which the companies say will be governed by a board featuring an even split of corporate interests and non-corporate ones such as academics and non-profits, will seek to share research and decide on ethical guidelines for the industry.

Murray Shanahan, a professor of Cognitive Robotics at Imperial College London, said: "A small number of large corporations are today the powerhouses behind the development of sophisticated artificial intelligence. The inauguration of the Partnership on AI is a very welcome step towards ensuring this technology is used wisely."

On Wednesday night, the project unveiled a list of eight rules that it will live by. These include: “We will seek to ensure that AI technologies benefit and empower as many people as possible,” and: “Working to protect the privacy and security of individuals”.
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Apple, which is also investing in artificial intelligence, has not joined, although the partnership’s    founders said it hoped the iPhone maker would join in the coming months.

The organisation said it did not intend to lobby politicians or governments but instead to be a forum for tackling questions about AI.

“This group is a huge step forward, breaking down barriers for AI teams to share best practices, research ways to maximize societal benefits and tackle ethical concerns,” said Mustafa Suleyman, the co-founder of DeepMind, the London-based AI company Google bought in 2014 and which has led much of the internet giant’s research since.