Apple has announced its plans to join Microsoft, Google, Facebook, Amazon and IMB in a research group named the Partnership on AI.
Late last year we reported that Facebook, Amazon, Google, IBM, and Microsoft had together formed a new research group, named the Partnership on AI, to oversee studies and promote the best practices as the development of artificial intelligence marches forward.
As the Partnership describes itself on its website, the group aims to “conduct research, organize discussions, share insights, provide thought leadership, consult with relevant third parties, respond to questions from the public and media, and create educational material that advance the understanding of AI technologies including machine perception, learning, and automated reasoning.”
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One notable absentee from that group was Apple, which has notoriously been secretive around the development of many of its core products and services.
That is now set to change, as Apple has formally indicated that it will join some of its closest rivals in a bid to further ethical AI research. The news follows the attendance of key Apple employees at an invitation-only AI conference, where the company announced it would begin allowing AI researchers to publish their work in academic papers.
The earliest fruits of that effort have been the revelation that Apple has been working on intelligent image recognition, potentially for integration into facial recognition software that could debut on a future iPhone.
Apple’s introduction into the Partnership on AI will serve to loosen the company’s tight grip on internal research and might well reveal more advanced projects that the company has queued in the pipeline.
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What are your thoughts on the news that Apple is set to join the Partnership on AI? Be sure to let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
Follow Bryan Smith on Twitter: @bryansmithSA
