Apple joins tech giants in Partnership on AI foundation

Apple joins Partnership on AI, which was founded by major tech companies to consult on artificial intelligence. Amazon, Google, Facebook, IBM and Microsoft were already part of the foundation.

Tom Gruber, chief of Siri, will represent Apple at the foundation. He was one of the founders of Siri, which was bought by Apple in 2010. Remarkably, Partnership on AI reports that Apple has been involved with the foundation from the very beginning. Before the announcement, the iPhone maker was already working with the other companies on the partnership. Apple is now also listed as one of the founding members. It is not clear why this is only now being announced.

When the foundation was announced last September, Apple was a notable absentee from the list of major tech companies. The organization, which is fully called ‘The Partnership on Artificial Intelligence to Benefit People and Society’, aims to raise public awareness of artificial intelligence and discuss guidelines. Topics such as ethics, privacy, interoperability and reliability of techniques must be addressed.

Furthermore, Partnership on AI has announced the accession of six new board members who are affiliated with independent institutes. Among them is Dario Amodei of OpenAI. That is another research institute founded by technology companies, which also involves Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk. The first meeting between the board members of the foundation will take place on 3 February.