Philanthropies launch new initiative to ensure AI advances the public interest - Ford Foundation

web

fordfoundation.org·fordfoundation.org/news-and-stories/news-and-press/news/p...

Announces a $200M+ philanthropic coalition to fund civil society AI safety and governance work, coordinating with the Biden administration's AI policy agenda to mitigate harms and promote equitable AI development.

Metadata

Importance: 42/100press releasenews

Summary

Ten major philanthropies announced a coordinated $200M+ initiative in November 2023 to ensure AI serves the public interest, aligning with Vice President Harris's five priority areas including democracy protection, worker empowerment, transparency, and international AI norms. The coalition includes Ford Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, Mozilla Foundation, Open Society Foundations, and others. They committed to scaling civil society efforts to mitigate AI harms, particularly for marginalized communities.

Key Points

•Ten philanthropies collectively committing over $200M to public interest AI work, coordinating grantmaking across civil society organizations.
•Initiative aligns with VP Harris's five AI priority areas: democracy, public innovation, worker empowerment, transparency/accountability, and international norms.
•Emphasis on disproportionate AI harms to marginalized communities and threats to civil, human, and worker rights.
•Participating foundations include Ford, MacArthur, Mozilla, Open Society, Omidyar Network, and others spanning progressive philanthropy.
•Signals growing philanthropic coordination on AI governance as a counterweight to industry-led AI development.

1 FactBase fact citing this source

Entity	Property	Value	As Of
Ford Foundation	coalition	Co-led 2023 initiative where 10 major philanthropies committed $200M+ collectively to mitigate AI harms. Founding member of Humanity AI ($500M, 2025).	—

Cached Content Preview

HTTP 200Fetched Apr 7, 20268 KB

Philanthropies launch new initiative to ensure AI advances the public interest - Ford Foundation 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 

 

 

 

 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 

 

 
 
 

 
 
 
 News and press 
 

 
 | News 
 

 
 
 Philanthropies launch new initiative to ensure AI advances the public interest

 1 November 2023 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 Share: 
 

 
 
 Share this page on Facebook 
 Facebook 
 
 

 
 
 Share this page on LinkedIn 
 LinkedIn 
 

 

 
 

 Washington D.C.: Today, a group of ten leading philanthropies announced a bold new initiative to ensure that AI advances the public interest in the areas of need identified today by Vice President Kamala Harris. Participating foundations are committed to leveraging and aligning grantmaking toward progress on these urgent issues.

 These institutions are collectively contributing more than $200 million in funding toward public interest efforts to mitigate AI harms and promote responsible use and innovation. Going forward, they will coordinate on new actions in this space and will convene in the new year with a cross-sector set of actors to take stock of progress.

 &#8220;We welcome Vice President Harris&#8217;s leadership and commitment to ensuring AI serves the public interest,” said Darren Walker, president of the Ford Foundation. “The Vice President&#8217;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.”

 When developed, deployed, and used responsibly, AI technologies can help address pressing challenges in health, climate, education, and other issues. But AI systems are also creating significant and tangible harms – often with a disproportionate impact on marginalized communities – and pose serious threats to civil rights, human rights, worker rights, and national and international security.

 Moreover, while developments in AI have the potential to contribute to economic prosperity, sustained, broadly shared progress requires engaged action from communities, workers, government, and the public. As the development and deployment of AI systems accelerates, including the growing use of generative AI across our economy and society, dedicated and coordinated action across sectors is critical to address existing harms and emerging challenges together.

 The philanthropies that are part of this initiative include: The David and Lucile Packard Foundation; Democracy Fund; the Ford Foundation; Heising-Simons Foundation; the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation; Kapor Foundation; Mozilla Foundation; Omidyar Network; Open Society Foundations; and the Wallace Global Fund. 

 The above philanthropies welcome the leadership of Vice President Harris in identifying five critical areas of need to help ensure the benefits of AI are broadly 

... (truncated, 8 KB total)

Resource ID: kb-bc942fc2db3e1331