The AI Impact Challenge launched on October 29 at its AI for Social GoodOpens a new window event will focus on projects aimed at preserving wildlife, finding jobs, predicting environmental incidents such as floods and preparing for health risks, with organizations invited to submit applications for funding by January 22, 2019.
The operation will be overseen by the company’s charitable arm, Google.org, and intends to drive nonprofit groups, universities and other organizations outside Silicon Valley’s corporate and earning-oriented sphere into AI-related research and development.
“Selected organizations will receive customized support to help bring their ideas to life: coaching from Google’s AI experts, Google.org grant funding from a $25 million pool, credit and consulting from Google Cloud, and more,†said GoogleOpens a new window .
Ethics Steer Progress
At the launch event, company executives referred to existing projects currently using the technology that are able to sort through data faster than a human, and which they hope will be emulated by the new initiative.
Projects include computer analysis of more than 100,000 hours of underwater audio recordings amalgamated to identify the songs of humpback whales that might help to map changing migration patterns, as well as avoid collisions with ships, and Indian flood forecasting, where 20% of the world’s flood-related fatalities occur.
In partnership with the country’s Central Water Commission and analyzing historical events, river level readings and geographical data, the company has used AI and computing power to generate maps and run simulations which are then fed into Google Public Alerts.
News of the AI challenge comes as Google reassesses its ethical principles regarding the use of AI. This past June, the company did not seek to renew Project Maven, a lucrative contract with the US Defense Department that provided AI analysis of drone footage, following a backlash and protests by employees.
An AI-related ethics manifestoOpens a new window published at the time stated that the company would not deploy AI applications for weapons or technologies created potentially to cause injury, in the gathering of information or surveillance violating internationally accepted norms, or in technologies whose purpose contravenes widely accepted principles of international law and human rights.
In October, the company withdrew from the running for another potential contract said to be worth about $10 billion that would provide cloud storage services to the Pentagon because it might breach those principles.
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The head of the Google Brain AI division and a senior research fellow, Jeff Dean, said the AI competition was “not really†a reaction to the company’s military-related work, insisting at the launch event that “this has been in the works for quite some time. We’ve been doing work in the search space that is socially beneficial and not directly related to commercial applications. It’s really important for us to show what the potential for AI and machine learning can be, and to lead by example.â€
The move comes at a time that several tech groups are experiencing tension over AI, with staff protests at companies including Microsoft and Salesforce over how their technology is used in connection with the military or to support controversial immigration and border policies by the Trump administration.
Rivals Microsoft and Amazon also have AI initiatives focused in benevolent areas. Microsoft has committed $147 million to its AI for Good project and in September pledged $40 million over five years via its AI for Humanitarian Action project, focusing on disaster recovery, the needs of children, human rights and refugee protection.