Meta Platforms Inc. and International Business Machines Corp. are teaming up with over 40 companies and organizations to establish an industry group committed to open source artificial intelligence work. The goal is to share technology and minimize risks.
The coalition, known as the AI Alliance, will concentrate on the responsible development of AI technology. This includes the creation of safety and security tools, as stated in a Tuesday announcement. The group aims to boost the availability of open source AI models, moving away from proprietary systems used by certain companies. Additionally, they plan to create new hardware and collaborate with academic researchers.
Proponents of open source AI technology, where developers publicly share it for others to utilize, view this approach as a more effective means of nurturing highly complex systems. In recent months, Meta has been unveiling open source versions of its large language models, which serve as the core of AI chatbots.
“We believe it’s better when AI is developed openly — more people can access the benefits, build innovative products and work on safety. 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. We’re looking forward to working with partners to advance the state-of-the-art in AI and help everyone build responsibly,” Nick Clegg, Meta’s president of global affairs, said in the statement.
The alliance is composed of participants such as Oracle Corp., Advanced Micro Devices Inc., Intel Corp., Stability AI, and academic and research organizations. In the future, it will set up a governing board and a technical oversight committee. Notable contributors include the University of Notre Dame and the Mass Open Cloud Alliance.
Arvind Krishna, IBM Chairman and CEO, said, “The progress we continue to witness in AI is a testament to open innovation and collaboration across communities of creators, scientists, academics and business leaders. This is a pivotal moment in defining the future of AI. IBM is proud to partner with like-minded organizations through the AI Alliance to ensure this open ecosystem drives an innovative AI agenda underpinned by safety, accountability and scientific rigor.”
The recent chaos at OpenAI, the brains behind ChatGPT, which saw the dismissal and subsequent reinstatement of its CEO, has sparked a worldwide debate on the transparency companies should uphold in crafting powerful AI technology. Interestingly, OpenAI, a key player, was not mentioned as a participant in the AI Alliance.
