IBM and Meta have joined forces to establish the AI Alliance, a global coalition consisting of over 50 organizations. Notable members include AMD, Intel, NASA, CERN, and Harvard University. The main objective of the alliance is to advance open innovation and open science in AI, as a countermeasure to the closed AI systems employed by industry leaders such as OpenAI and Google. The alliance aims to promote transparency and collaboration, encouraging the development of alternative models that prioritize safety, diversity, and broad accessibility.
The AI Alliance, which purposely excludes OpenAI and Google, marks the emergence of a clear ideological battle within the AI community. While companies like Meta advocate for open and transparent innovation, others, like OpenAI and Google, favor closed models that lack transparency. By pooling together their collective expertise and resources, Meta and its allies hope to challenge the dominance of closed models and foster a new wave of openness in AI research and development.
According to Meta’s President of Global Affairs, Nick Clegg, We believe it’s better when AI is developed openly. He further explains that open development allows for wider accessibility to AI benefits, fosters innovation, and prioritizes safety. The AI Alliance aims to facilitate collaboration between researchers, developers, and companies, fostering progress regardless of whether models are shared openly or not.
The scope of the AI Alliance is remarkably diverse, encompassing various sectors, including technology, research groups, government entities, and academia. Members range from benchmarking and platform groups like Hugging Face and MLPerf to leading universities such as UC Berkeley and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Even renowned research organizations like NASA, CERN, and Singapore’s Agency for Science, Technology and Research have joined the alliance.
In addition to promoting open AI research, the AI Alliance has outlined several key initiatives. These include the establishment of benchmarks and evaluation standards, the development of an AI hardware accelerator ecosystem, and the support of exploratory AI research on a global scale. The alliance also places a strong emphasis on diversity in AI foundation models, aiming to address critical societal challenges such as climate change and education.
While it remains to be seen what impact the AI Alliance will have, its formation represents a significant development in the trajectory of AI development. It signifies a clear divide between those advocating for openness and collaboration, as represented by Meta and its allies, and those favoring closed, proprietary approaches. Similar to the software market, where both Windows and Linux coexist, there is likely room for a multifaceted approach to AI in the future.
In a world where AI continues to shape numerous industries and sectors, the establishment of the AI Alliance signals a shift towards greater transparency and accessibility. By leveraging the collective knowledge and expertise of its diverse membership, the alliance aims to drive progress and ensure that the benefits of AI are accessible to all. As the future unfolds, we will witness whether this open approach gains traction and reshapes the AI landscape as we know it.
