IBM, Meta and others form ‘AI Alliance’ to advance AI development

In the race for market supremacy among artificial intelligence (AI) firms, a coalition of technology leaders spearheaded by IBM and Meta established the AI Alliance. Rather than competing, these companies aim to collaborate, emphasizing their commitment to fostering transparent innovation and responsible development in artificial intelligence.

In a joint statement, IBM and Meta outlined the AI Alliance’s objectives, emphasizing a commitment to safety, collaboration, diversity, economic opportunity and universal benefits. The alliance, they noted, encompasses a collective annual research and development investment exceeding $80 billion.

While numerous members endorse open-source development, adherence to this model is not obligatory for membership. Over 50 tech companies, such as AMD, Dell Technologies, Red Hat, Sony Group, Hugging Face, Stability AI, Oracle and the Linux Foundation, have joined with IBM and Meta in the AI Alliance.

“The progress we continue to witness in AI is a testament to open innovation and collaboration across communities of creators, scientists, academics, and business leaders.”

According to IBM and Meta, the AI Alliance will create a governing board and technical oversight committee focused on advancing AI projects and setting standards and guidelines. The alliance aims to collaborate with governments, nonprofits, and nongovernment organizations operating in the AI sector.

“The AI Alliance brings together researchers, developers, and companies to share tools and knowledge that can help us all make progress whether models are shared openly or not,”

Looking to engage the academic community, the AI Alliance also includes several educational and research institutions, including Cern, NASA, the Cleveland Clinic, Cornell University, Dartmouth, Imperial College London, University of California Berkeley, University of Illinois, University of Notre Dame, The University of Tokyo, and Yale University.

While Meta has advocated for open-source AI models and responsible development, the company opted to decentralize and streamline AI development by disbanding its responsible AI team in November.

Prominent AI developers, including Microsoft, Google, OpenAI (the developer of ChatGPT) and Anthropic (Claude AI), are conspicuously missing from the AI Alliance. Instead, they established their own initiative, The Frontier Forum, dedicated to responsible AI in July.

Earlier in 2023, the Biden Administration engaged in discussions with major AI developers to commit to responsible artificial intelligence development. Signatories included OpenAI, Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Anthropic, Meta and Inflection. Subsequently, in September, NVIDIA, IBM, Scale AI, Adobe, Palantir, Salesforce and Stability AI joined the pledge.

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