Major foundations form $200M funding coalition for ethical AI use

A coalition of top philanthropies including Ford Foundation, the Omidyar Network, and Open Society Foundations have formed a coalition that will invest at least $200 million to support the “responsible use” of artificial intelligence, as concerns grow about the technology’s potential impact on democracy, workforces, and public safety. The group will coordinate efforts to distribute grants to AI projects supporting equity, democracy, and human rights worldwide. The effort was one of a series of AI policy initiatives that United States Vice President Kamala Harris announced at the AI Safety Summit in London on Wednesday. Philanthropies involved in the U.S.-led initiative have already begun distributing grants domestically and in other parts of the world. Security experts have grown increasingly worried about the potential impact for generative AI — which describes machine learning systems capable of generating text, images, code or other types of content as well as human-like responses via chatbots — to spread disinformation, especially during elections. And worries that AI will replace jobs also have surged among the general public. “AI tools could benefit people all over the world — but who they serve will depend on how they are developed, used, and overseen,” Laleh Ispahani, executive director of Open Society-U.S., said in a statement around the coalition’s launch. “The decisions we make now will set the course for decades to come,” she added. OSF is among 10 philanthropic groups working with the Biden administration as part of the coalition. They are supporting the development of AI that is “designed and used in the best interests of workers, consumers, communities, and historically marginalized people in the United States and across the globe,” according to a White House press release. The other members are the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, Democracy Fund, Heising-Simons Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Kapor Foundation, Mozilla Foundation, and the Wallace Foundation. The philanthropies said they have collectively invested $200 million so far in the AI field, though they have not yet said how much more they’ll invest going forward. Moving forward, those investments will align with following five priorities: • Ensuring that AI protects democracy and the rights and freedoms of all people and isn’t used to destabilize elections, spread disinformation, or undermine public trust. • Encouraging AI innovators to use AI to serve the public interest and improve quality of life for people worldwide. • Maximizing the benefits and mitigating the harms of AI-driven changes on workers across sectors and industries. • Holding AI companies accountable for racial, social, and economic bias and funding projects to increase transparency and accountability within the tech industry. • Supporting the development of international AI rules and norms. “As the development and deployment of AI systems accelerates, including the growing use of generative AI across our economy and society, dedicated and coordinated action across sectors is critical to address existing harms and emerging challenges together,” the Ford Foundation said in a statement. Ford largely provides multiyear general operating support to its AI grantees, and one of its aims is to use the initiative to encourage other funders to do the same, “so that civil society groups can be as adaptable and built for the long term as possible,” a Ford spokesperson told Devex. Ford also wants to learn from the approaches of the other funders in the group and expand its membership, the spokesperson added. “[T]his is not a closed circle of 10 foundations, and the hope is to bring more funders into the fold to grow each other’s work and the field,” the spokesperson said. In recent years, the philanthropy sector has stepped up efforts to push for equitable AI use. The Rockefeller Foundation has been providing several grants for research on the ethical use of AI. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation also last month pledged to invest $30 million in a new AI platform in Africa to help scientists create health and development solutions. If the sector engages with the technology early on, it has a better chance of shaping it around priority issues such as human rights and democracy, experts have said.