Initiated by Open AI CEO Sam Altman and Operation HOPE CEO John Hope Bryant, the group aims to ensure
underserved communities can participate in the evolution of
AI
ATLANTA, July 1, 2024
/PRNewswire/ -- The AI Ethics Council, founded by Open AI CEO
Sam Altman and Operation HOPE CEO
John Hope Bryant, held its inaugural
meeting on Friday, June
28th in Atlanta.
The group, which evolved out of a listening tour that was initiated
last spring at Clark Atlanta University
that Mr. Altman and Mr. Bryant conducted together, was formed to
ensure that traditionally underrepresented communities would have a
voice in the evolution of AI overall— to help frame the human and
ethical considerations around the technology and participate in the
economic opportunities of artificial intelligence. The council was
announced in December 2023 at the
HOPE Global Forums | Annual Meeting in Atlanta.
The AI Ethics Council is an interdisciplinary body of diverse
experts designed to become a leading authority in
identifying, advising on,
and addressing ethical issues related to
artificial intelligence and its impact on underserved and
historically excluded communities. In addition to Mr. Altman and
Mr. Bryant, founding council members include:
- George T. French,
Jr., JD, PhD., President, Clark Atlanta
University and Chair of Presidents, United Negro College
Fund
- Helene D. Gayle, MD, MPH,
President, Spelman College
- Bernice A. King, JD, M.
Div, CEO, The King Center
- David A. Thomas, PhD.,
President, Morehouse College
- Angela F. Williams, JD,
M. Div, President and CEO, United Way Worldwide
- Ambassador Andrew J.
Young, Chairman, The Andrew J. Young Foundation, former
U.N. Ambassador, former Mayor of Atlanta and civil rights icon
Additional members representing the technology and community
sectors will be announced in the coming months.
At the inaugural meeting, Open AI Head of International Policy
James Hairston briefed members on the current state of AI,
challenges, and opportunities. Mr. Bryant shared that he will be
convening a meeting of tech leaders to advance issues important to
the council, and announced the Council website will go live
July 1, 2024. "I see this website as
our first stake in the ground. Its substance will grow, expand, and
deepen over time. Transparency will be a hallmark. I encourage all
citizens, here and abroad, to get informed and educated around what
AI really is and isn't," said Mr. Bryant. "As a council, we aim to
focus our attention on the needle we can help move: expanding
inclusive opportunity around our shared future, for everyone, as it
relates to AI."
In addition to Mr. Bryant, Operation HOPE was represented by
President and CFO Brian Betts and AI
Ethics Council Managing Director Eric
Kaplan. Topics the Council discussed included:
- The need to focus on technical capacity: How will we develop,
grow, evaluate, and test the technical capacity of the system?
- How to evaluate safety, reporting, and the capacity of the law
to adapt?
- What are the processes in place to evaluate AI?
- What can be done granularly to get more components of society
involved?
- How can we prepare for an uncertain/undetermined future with
this new tech?
- How can AI benefit the world? What are the dangers? How to
optimize adoption? How do we encourage equitable participation in
the economic and societal benefits?
The AI Ethics Council will form a committee framework, with
sub-committees and working groups, through which members will help
guide ethical principles for AI. The Council will be initially
focused on the intersection of technology and humanity for
positive, ethical, and transformative impact generally in economic
opportunity for all, finance, education, policy, employment,
accessibility, health and healthcare, and sustainability.
The AI Ethics Council will undertake a staged approach to the
mission, pursuing impact by leveraging enhanced public visibility
and influence, deep tech sector expertise, policy-focused advocacy,
partnerships, program development, and active engagement with tech,
business, community, government, and other stakeholders. Intended
outcomes include:
- Establishment of Council and Committees consisting of
multidisciplinary experts dedicated to advancing AI ethics, and
positive future vision for our world.
- Development and dissemination of AI ethics guidelines and best
practices.
- Engagement of education leaders, community leaders, business
leaders and entrepreneurs, government, technologists-for-good, and
the public, to foster informed discussions and decisions on AI
ethics.
- Promotion of ethical AI usage through education and
engagement.
- Empowerment, inclusion, economic opportunity, and acting where
appropriate and where the Council can add value.
An update on the Council's first-year activities will be shared
at the 2024 HOPE Global Forums | Annual Meeting, December 9-11 in Atlanta.
About Operation HOPE
Since 1992, Operation HOPE has been moving America from civil
rights to "silver rights" with the mission of making free
enterprise and capitalism work for the underserved—disrupting
poverty for millions of low and moderate-income youth and adults
across the nation. Through its community uplift model, HOPE Inside,
which received the 2016 Innovator of the Year recognition by
American Banker magazine, Operation HOPE has served more than 4
million individuals and directed more than $3.2 billion in economic activity into
disenfranchised communities—turning check-cashing customers into
banking customers, renters into homeowners, small business dreamers
into small business owners, minimum wage workers into living wage
consumers, and uncertain disaster victims into financially
empowered disaster survivors. For more
information: OperationHOPE.org. Follow the HOPE conversation
on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn.
Additional information may be found at www.operationhope.org
Contact Information
Operation HOPE
Kevin Boucher, 213-479-7833
kevin.boucher@operationhope.org
Lalohni Campbell, 404-593-7145
la@persemediagroup.com
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SOURCE Operation HOPE, Inc.