Building Responsible AI with New International Partners

The Partnership on AI (PAI) strives to bring diverse organizations together in pursuit of responsible artificial intelligence. We have seen the power of the positive change that can occur when Partners from different geographies and areas of expertise gather to deliberate and evolve the practice of responsible AI.

Today, we are thrilled to be expanding our community by bringing on board four international members to the Partnership.

With these Partners, we see new opportunities in enacting progress for responsible artificial intelligence. The Alan Turing Institute, and Wadhwani Institute for Artificial Intelligence, strengthen our collaboration capacity in applying AI for socially beneficial causes. The Center for Human Rights Causes at Carnegie Mellon University provides technical assistance in empowering voices devoted to advancing human rights. And SoftBank Group opens new avenues to connect our community with companies around the world who are developing and using AI. We welcome these Partners as we seek to elevate the voices of our underrepresented members to the decision-makers responsible for artificial intelligence.

We believe investment firms have leverage in disseminating our best practices, created by our advocacy and nonprofit Partners, throughout their portfolio. We are thus excited to take advantage of our ability to connect with SoftBank Group’s portfolio of companies that are developing and deploying AI around the world.

The Partnership’s work is focused on convening and empowering diverse voices. Our stakeholders include organizations that develop AI, organizations representing civil society and public interests, academic institutions, and those affected by AI technologies who may not traditionally be represented in technology development and governance.  We have worked to build an increasingly global community of practice—supported by new representation from the UK, India, and Japan in the new collaborators we are announcing today.

The Alan Turing Institute

The Alan Turing Institute is the UK’s national institute for data science and artificial intelligence. The Institute is named in honour of Alan Turing, whose pioneering work in theoretical and applied mathematics, engineering and computing is considered to have laid the foundations for modern-day data science and artificial intelligence. The Institute’s goals are to undertake world-class research in data science and artificial intelligence, apply its research to real-world problems, drive economic impact and societal good, lead the training of a new generation of scientists, and shape the public conversation around data.

“We are excited to become a new member of the Partnership on AI (PAI) and to join a growing community committed to AI technologies that benefit people and society. In furthering our research and public engagement efforts, we will be strengthened by shared goals such as building AI systems to contribute to the public good and to a well-functioning economy, with fairness, reliability, security, and appropriate transparency and privacy at its core,” said Adrian Weller, Programme Director for Artificial Intelligence at The Alan Turing Institute. “We’re keen to engage with PAI’s work on best practice in the fairness, transparency, and accountability of AI; safety-critical AI; and AI, labour and the economy. We look forward to building on existing collaborations, where we are already working together on benchmarking of understanding and transparency of machine learning lifecycles, and helping to make explainable AI useful to real-world stakeholders.”

Center for Human Rights Science at Carnegie Mellon University

The Center for Human Rights Science brings together scientists and human rights practitioners committed to rigorous assessment of the state of human rights around the world. The Center encourages interdisciplinary collaboration in order to promote the development and application of scientific methods for collecting, analyzing, and communicating human rights information. The Center also provides technical assistance to individuals and organizations devoted to advancing human rights through consultation, educational programs, and original research.

“At the Center for Human Rights Science, we are passionate about ensuring that artificial intelligence is used in service of humanity and does not make existing social inequalities worse,” said Jay Aronson, Director of the Center for Human Rights Science at Carnegie Mellon University. “By joining the Partnership on AI, we are better equipped to fulfill our mission in engaging interdisciplinary collaboration between technical experts in the field of artificial intelligence and human rights advocacy organizations.”

SoftBank Group

The SoftBank Group invests in breakthrough technology to improve people’s quality of life around the world. The SoftBank Group is comprised of SoftBank Group Corp. (TOKYO: 9984), a holding company that includes telecommunications, internet services, AI, smart robotics, IoT and clean energy technology providers; Arm Limited, the world’s leading semiconductor IP company; and the SoftBank Vision Fund, which is investing up to $100 billion to help extraordinary entrepreneurs transform industries and shape new ones.

“As a leading source of capital and expertise to AI-driven companies, SoftBank Group supports PAI’s work to develop best practices and advance public understanding of AI,” said Bruce Andrews, Vice President for Global Public Policy, SoftBank Group. “We look forward to contributing to PAI, and in turn promoting its work, including with the companies around the world in which we’ve invested.”

The Wadhwani Institute for Artificial Intelligence

The Wadhwani Institute for Artificial Intelligence is an independent, nonprofit research institute and global hub, developing AI solutions for social good. Its mission is to develop and apply AI-based innovations and solutions to a broad range of societal domains including healthcare, agriculture, education, infrastructure, and financial inclusion. Wadhwani AI aims to work with governments, social sector organisations, other innovators, and all other relevant stakeholders to transform the lives of the billions of poor, underserved people in India and the rest of the world.