The Omidyar Network, the Democracy and Wallace Global funds, and the David and Lucile Packard, Ford, Heising-Simons, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur, Kapor, Mozilla, and Open Society foundations have launched a $200 million initiative to ensure that AI advances the public interest by promoting its responsible use and innovation while mitigating harms.

Announced by Vice President Kamala Harris during the Global Summit on AI Safety, the initiative includes a vision for philanthropic giving to advance AI that is designed and used in the best interests of workers, consumers, communities, and historically marginalized people in the United States and around the globe. To that end, the initiative will support actions to ensure that AI protects democracy and the rights and freedoms of all people, such as defending free and fair elections, while combating disinformation and the undermining of public trust; actions to leverage AI to innovate in the public interest and deliver breakthroughs to improve quality of life for people around the world, such as building policy makers’ understanding of AI and technology to shape effective and equitable policy; actions to empower workers to thrive amid AI-driven changes across sectors and industries, such as efforts to ensure AI systems respect labor rights and foster quality jobs; actions to improve transparency, interpretability, and accountability for AI models, companies, and deployers, such as advancing research to address power disparities and monopoly in the tech industry; and actions to support the development of international AI rules and norms, such as policy frameworks, research that illuminates impacts of discrimination and bias, and advocacy efforts. Philanthropic members of the initiative will coordinate on new actions and convene in 2024 with a cross-sector set of actors to take stock of progress.

Additional U.S. initiatives to advance the safe and responsible use of AI announced by Harris include the launch of a United States AI Safety Institute (US AISI), draft policy guidance on the use of AI by the U.S. government, a political declaration on the responsible military use of AI and autonomy, an effort to delete and block AI-driven fraudulent phone calls, international standards on content authentication, and a pledge to incorporate responsible and rights-respecting practices in government development, procurement, and use of AI.

“We are proud to stand with Vice President Kamala Harris and our many partners in philanthropy at this critical juncture for the future of AI,” said Omidyar Network senior vice president Michele Lawrence Jawando. “Together, we are committed to progress on the many important issues facing us as we navigate the implications of this new technology. There is a clear opportunity and imperative for policymakers and philanthropy—alongside civil society and industry—to help bend the course of AI toward large-scale and broad-based benefits and away from both current and extreme harms. Vice President Harris’ leadership is deeply needed and appreciated as we focus on building a technological future that will safeguard democracy, freedom, and rights, and serve society for years to come.”

“We welcome Vice President Harris’ leadership and commitment to ensuring AI serves the public interest,” said Ford Foundation president Darren Walker. “The vice president’s announcement builds on years of work by visionary Ford-supported organizations who center equity and justice in technology policy and who illuminate the uneven social impacts of AI. Ford will continue to partner with other philanthropies to align, grow resources, and scale leading edge work to ensure justice in AI.”

(Photo credit: Getty Images/Laurence Dutton)