Artificial Intelligence (AI) can help do many incredible things, from detecting cancer to driving our cars but it also raises many questions and poses new challenges. Stephen Hawking, the renowned physicist once told the BBC, “The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race. It would take off on its own, and re-design itself at an ever increasing rate. Humans, who are limited by slow biological evolution, couldn’t compete, and would be superseded.”
Ensuring that this transition to the age of AI remains beneficial for humanity remains one of the greatest challenges of our time and here are 12 organizations working on saving humanity from the dark side of AI.
- Algorithmic Justice League is a collective started that aims to remove human bias from AI algorithms that can result in exclusionary experiences and discriminatory practices. It focuses on 3 key areas 1) Highlight Algorithmic Bias through Media, Art, and Science 2) Provide Space for People to Voice Concerns and Experiences with Coded Bias, 3) Develop Practices for Accountability During the Design, Development, and Deployment of Coded Systems. https://www.ajlunited.org
- AI Now Institute at New York University is an interdisciplinary research center dedicated to understanding the social implications of artificial intelligence. Their work focuses on four core domains: Rights & Liberties, Labor & Automation, Bias & Inclusion, Safety & Critical Infrastructure. https://ainowinstitute.org
- Foundation for Responsible Robotics The mission of the Foundation for Responsible Robotics is to shape a future of responsible robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) design, development, use, regulation, and implementation. https://responsiblerobotics.org
- AI Ethics Lab brings together researchers and practitioners from various disciplines to detect and solve issues related to ethical design in AI. Based in US and Turkey, the Lab offers a comprehensive approach to ethical design of AI-related technology. Their goal is to enhance technology development by integrating ethics from the earliest stages of design and development for the mutual benefit of industry and communities. http://aiethicslab.com
- AI4ALL is a nonprofit working to increase diversity and inclusion in artificial intelligence. We create pipelines for underrepresented talent through education and mentorship programs around the U.S. and Canada that give high school students early exposure to AI for social good. Our vision is for AI to be developed by a broad group of thinkers and doers advancing AI for humanity’s benefit. http://ai-4-all.org
- Open Roboethics Institute(ORI) which spun out of the Open Roboethics initiative, an international roboethics think tank hosted at University of British Columbia. Since its inception in 2012, ORI has been exploring roboethics questions in the domain of self-driving vehicles, care robots, and lethal autonomous weapons systems by taking on stakeholder-inclusive approaches to the questions. https://www.openroboethics.org
- Open AI is focused on discovering and enacting the path to safe artificial general intelligence. OpenAI conducts fundamental, long-term research toward the creation of safe AGI. The organization builds free software for training, benchmarking, and experimenting with AI. https://openai.com
- The Partnership on AI was established to study and formulate best practices on AI technologies, to advance the public’s understanding of AI, and to serve as an open platform for discussion and engagement about AI and its influences on people and society. It currently has 70+ partners including Amazon, Amnesty international, Apple, Google, IBM, Microsoft, and others. https://www.partnershiponai.org
- Future of Life Institute is a charity and outreach organization working to ensure that tomorrow’s most powerful technologies are beneficial for humanity. It is currently focusing on keeping artificial intelligencebeneficial and also exploring ways of reducing risks from nuclear weaponsand biotechnology. https://futureoflife.org
- Machine Intelligence Research Institute (MIRI) is a research nonprofit studying the mathematical underpinnings of intelligent behavior. Their mission is to develop formal tools for the clean design and analysis of general-purpose AI systems, with the intent of making such systems safer and more reliable when they are developed. https://intelligence.org
- Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) launched a global initiative for ethical considerations in the design of AI and autonomous systems. It’s an incubation space for new standards and solutions, certifications and codes of conduct, and consensus building for ethical implementation of intelligent technologies. https://standards.ieee.org/industry-connections/ec/autonomous-systems.html
- Leading educational institutions like University of Oxford (Future of Humanity Institute), University of Cambridge (Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence), University of Berkeley (Center for Human-Compatible AI), Santa Clara University (Markkula Center for Applied Ethics) and many others have programs devoted to understanding the long-term impact of AI and exploring ways to keep it beneficial for humanity.
Leave a comment if there are any others I missed.
Mia Dand is the CEO of Lighthouse3.com, a Strategic Research & Advisory firm based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Mia is an experienced marketing leader who helps F5000 companies innovate at scale with digital and emerging technologies. She has built and led new emerging technology programs for global brands including Google, Symantec, HP, eBay and others. Mia is a strong champion for diversity & inclusion in tech. You can reach her on Twitter @MiaD