Mozilla, the non-profit behind open source web browser, Firefox, has announced a $30m commitment to the promotion of ethical artificial intelligence (AI).
The investment will be used to launch Mozilla.ai, a new start-up and community with a central mission of building an open-source trustworthy AI.
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Mozilla’s initial $30m investment in the Mozilla.ai comes from the non-profit arm of the Mozilla Corporation, the Mozilla Foundation. The investment in Mozilla.ai will be used to develop ethical AI apps and products within an independent open-source AI ecosystem.
The hope is that Mozilla.ai will be an independent organisation focused on the development of a decentralised, ethical AI ecosystem outside of Big Tech and academia.
This start-up will be led by, Mozilla managing director, Moez Draief, an experienced industry professional in the field of AI and a former academic at Imperial College and London’s School of Economics.
Draief, told Verdict that the most significant challenge to creating trustworthy AI is making it a priority. “Too often it’s something we look to build after the fact – as something trivial to add, rather than a necessity. In my experience, I have found that while there was almost always discussions of risks, trust and responsibility upfront – as projects moved on, factors like speed of deployment and technical performance pushed these good intentions to the sidelines,” he said.
“You can even see this happening in the core of the tech industry with companies laying off responsible AI teams just as they are ramping up the use of generative AI in their mainstream products,” adds Draief.
While ethical AI has reached boardroom level discussions, research analyst, GlobalData, highlights the fact that many companies are unclear about how to best navigate the murky waters of AI and ethics.
“No organisation wants to risk the public relations fiasco that would ensue should it be determined that the AI algorithms it uses yield biased results against a specific demographic, or are being applied a way that is not in line with corporate ethics policies,” warns the analyst.
