Welcoming The AI Shared Prosperity Initiative Steering Committee

Diverse Perspectives To Guide Multidisciplinary Debate For a Research Agenda Focused on AI Industry’s Role In Co-creating a Globally Inclusive Economic Future

Announced earlier this summer, the AI and Shared Prosperity Initiative (AI SPI) is a multi-year effort to advance public knowledge on what concrete frameworks companies developing and deploying AI should adopt to co-create a global economic future that is inclusive by design. Today, we are pleased to progress in this Initiative’s mission with the launch of the AI and Shared Prosperity Initiative Steering Committee.

The AI SPI Steering Committee is tasked with the vital role of guiding the development of the AI and Shared Prosperity Research Agenda. The Research Agenda will pose nuanced and refined questions for further study in a new subfield within responsible AI, centered on equipping the AI industry with practical frameworks for responsibility handling the (re)distributive power of AI.

To date, the “future of work” debate and scholarship have primarily focused on the need for the society and workers to prepare for and adjust to the changes in the labor market brought about by AI advancement, which is deemed to leave many people behind. The AI SPI focuses instead on the role and responsibility of the AI industry to steer the development of AI in a way that will make the economic transition induced by AI advancement less burdensome and costly on the part of workers and society, enabling an inclusive economic future. The AI SPI Research Agenda will raise foundational questions that remain unanswered by existing responsible AI research efforts. Foundational questions include: What concrete objectives can an AI industry actor striving to advance shared prosperity set for itself? How can this AI industry actor measure progress towards that objective? And what practical steps will help achieve progress towards this objective?

The AI SPI Steering Committee includes 23 distinguished experts and visionary thinkers from many disciplines and backgrounds: labor advocates and civil society leaders, ethicists,  entrepreneurs, leading social scientists, and technologists. This team of experts will explore a wide breadth of issues and questions in the formulation of the AI and Shared Prosperity Research Agenda. We anticipate and encourage productive disagreement within the Steering Committee in the shared pursuit of the AI Industry’s responsibility in a global economic inclusive future. Over the coming months, we look forward to sharing excerpts from the Committee deliberations: insights, provocations, and discussion points for the public at large to participate.

A core aspect of our mission at the Partnership on AI is the inclusion of diverse voices across global sectors, disciplines, and demographics so developments in AI advance positive outcomes for people and society. With the AI SPI Steering Committee, we’re proud to bring this aspect of our mission to life with the diverse perspectives of the AI SPI Steering Committee.

The AI SPI Research Agenda will be released for public comments in 2021. We hope that many organizations and individual researchers will be attracted to take up questions raised by the Steering Committee in the AI SPI Research Agenda. We will seek to gain input on the early prototypes and drafts of this agenda from workers employed in automation-prone industries around the world, policymakers, business practice change-makers from other fields, and the general public. 

To learn more and sign up for the AI SPI’s progress updates, visit the project webpage: https://www.partnershiponai.org/shared-prosperity-initiative/

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