Google’s new PAIR project wants to rethink how we use AI – CNET

Google's AI program, AlphaGo, went up against -- and defeated -- Chinese Go champion Ke Jie (on the left) at the Future of Go Summit in May in China. The match took place a year after AlphaGo bested Lee Sedol, world number two Go player.

AlphaGo may have defeated humans at board games, but its creators really just want us to be buddies.

In a new project named the People + AI Research Initiative (PAIR), Google's researchers are looking at the relationship between humans and artificial intelligencein the hopes of making the latter more useful to the former, the tech giant announced on its blogon Monday.

The company says it'll rethink AI on three levels: How we can use it as a tool in everyday life, how professionals in all fields can use it to make their jobs easier and how practical AI development can be taught to engineers.

Google isn't the only one making big moves to help develop the nascent field. On Monday, the Ethics and Governance of Artificial Intelligence Fund, helmed by Harvard University's Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society and the MIT Media Lab, pledged $7.6 million to support the creation of AI that serves public interest. Plus,the tech giant last year partnered with Amazon, Facebook, IBM and Microsoft to create a new not-for-profit called the Partnership on Artificial Intelligence to Benefit People and Society.

Google says, as part of PAIR, it will introduce new open-sourced tools and educational material as well as publish research to help push AI along.

Tech Enabled: CNET chronicles tech's role in providing new kinds of accessibility.

Batteries Not Included: The CNET team reminds us why tech is cool.

Read this article:

Google's new PAIR project wants to rethink how we use AI - CNET