By Greg Cunningham
July 26 2024, Apple has joined 15 other companies that signed on to the original commitment to commit efforts to ensure that AI is not used for destructive purposes. Apple joins the original seven companies asked by the White House to voluntarily sign a commitment in July of 2023 to protect the public from possible mis-use of AI. The original 7 companies were quickly followed by another 8, these companies are:
The original 7 leading AI companies to sign on in July 21, 2023 were:
Amazon
Anthropic
Alphabet (Google)
Inflection
Meta (Facebook)
Microsoft
OpenAI
An additional 8 Companies signed as well on September 12,2023
Adobe
Cohere
IBM
Nvidia
Palantir
Salesforce
Scale AI
Stability
While late to the game, Apple has signed on to this effort to control AI and how it affects consumers and the world at large. We will take a look at what this means and who are some of the companies that have signed on, and which ones are missing.
What does this Voluntary Pledge Mean?
“…Another critical step forward in the governance of AI” – Brad Smith, Microsoft President
“…it ignores a lot of work on how to train and develop models to minimize foreseeable harms” – Margaret Mitchell, researcher and chief ethics scientist at AI startup Hugging Face
Apple joins these companies in this pledge, that is well intentioned, but lacks in much of any actual enforceability. As it stands, the voluntary commitments from these companies are just that. A commitment to a set of standards that has no real repercussions or penalties. The White House has called on the National Institute of Standards and Technology, NIST to set standards for “Red Team” testing, meaning that companies commit to test models before they are launched. But again this will be voluntary as this stands now.
The Executive Order will require that companies that sign on, to notify the federal government when training a new AI system. It requires as well that results of safety tests are shared in accordance with the Defense Production Act. Brad Smith, president of Microsoft supported this as “Another critical step forward in the governance of AI technology.” Google’s president of public affairs, Kent Walker, said that the company looks forward to “engaging constructively with government agencies”. So the intention is there, but the actual delivery remains to be seen. However contrarian thoughts, from Margaret Mitchell, researcher and chief ethics scientist at AI startup Hugging Face point out that the “biggest concern to me in this is it ignores a lot of work on how to train and develop models to minimize foreseeable harms”
Who are the players that have signed on?
Companies like Amazon, Meta (Facebook) Google, Microsoft, IBM OpenAI and Salesforce are notable but expected well known companies that have been using and promoting AI for years, and have put significant development into AI technology. Let’s review the role and stake that these known companies have in AI, as well as some of these other companies that may not be as well known or whose AI involvement may not be as clear to the general public
| Companies Joined 7/23 | |
| Amazon | Amazon uses AI in multiple aspects of their business from Generative AI for their AWS platform, to using AI for reducing packaging and waste, to fulfillment operations. |
| Anthropic | The makers behind the AI “Claude” Anthropic is a California based AI company focused on AI safety and research |
| Alphabet (Google) | In 2023 Google introduced the AI Bard a Chatbot designed to compete with Bing intergration of AI, though it was met with mostly disapproval. In 2024 Google released AI Overviews on their search engine. Bard is now branded as Gemini or Google AI. |
| Inflection | Creators of Pi AI that is available through pi.ai or apps on iOS and Android. |
| Meta (Facebook) | Meta announced in 2024 efforts to provide notificaitons when photo realistic content has been AI generated. Meta is also looking to monetize AI on their WhatsApp platform by providing free AI chatbots. |
| Microsoft | Microsoft Invested $10 Billion in OpenAI in 2023 and has entigrated ChatGPT into Bing search engine and Edge web browsing software. |
| OpenAI | The organization behind ChatGPT, arguably the most influential AI platform, used by Mircrosoft and others. They also host the Sora video generation platform. Their Artistic platform DALL-E with artistic features like Outpainting are now available for use with no waitlist. |
| Companies Joined 9/23 | |
| Adobe | Adobe’s latest AI implementation is FireFly 3 an image generation model |
| Cohere | Cohere is a Canadian based company that mainly focuses on using AI for business enterprise, and specializes in large language models. |
| IBM | IBM’s AI Watson gained global noterity and competed on the game show Jeopardy in 2011. IBM holds over 1,500 AI patents, and recently aquired HasiCorp for over $6 Billion to further its cloud offerings and AI capability. |
| Nvidia | Comanding over 3/4 of the graphics market Nvidia GPU (Graphic processing units) has been intregal in AI development. 10,000 Nvidia GPUs were used to help train ChatGPT. In June Nvidia announced a partnership with Hewlett Packard Enterprise “AI Computing by HPE” that aims to provide a range of AI solutions. |
| Palantir | Palantir Gotham AI is used by the US Intelligence Community for aggregating data for national security. Palantir Metropolis learns and uncovers data between data points in private and public databases. Palantir Foundry is a system that integrates data to make decisions using generative processes. |
| Salesforce | Sales AI and Eintstien Copilot are tools that Salesforce uses to mainly focus on productivity in sales, CRM and advertising. |
| Scale AI | Based in California, the company provides labeled data to train AI applications. Scale has multiple partnerships and business ventures with META, OpenAI, Microsoft, Accenture, GM, Toyota, Nvidia, and many others. |
| Stability | Stability is an AI company best known for its text to image model Stable Diffusion 3. They also have offerings for Stable Video, Video3D and Audio 2.0 |
| Companies Joined 7/24 | |
| Apple | Apple uses AI for ‘Apple Intelligence’ an artificial intelligence software that incorporates ChatGPT to bring a personal assistant-like feature that integrates into Siri and Writing Tools. |
Who are the notable players that have NOT signed on?
Let’s also look at the notable companies that are missing from the list that are heavily involved with, or leading contributors in AI technology.
| Companies Still Not Joined | |
| Ansys | Ansys SymAI is a generative AI platform that focuses on simulations for engineeres without requiring coding knowledge or data science expertise. |
| Aurora | Founded by executives from Uber, Tesla and Google, Aurora provides autonomous driving solutions. It’s notible customers include Fiat, Volvo, Chysler and Toyota. And is working with FedEx on driverless delivery solutions and maximizing uptime and address optimization solutions for shipping fleets. |
| ClickUp | ClickUp Brain AI makes the bold claim of being the replacement for Gemini, OpenAI and being “one AI to replace them all”. Weather or not they fulfill on this bold claim remains to be seen. Their AI appears to focus on workflow, notes and meeting planning tools. |
| Dynatrace | Dynatrace’s AI, Davis, is used by Amazon, Google and Microsoft. It uses AI to detect issues and anomolies and monitor performance. It is also capable of sometimes generating and implementing solutions without human intervention. |
| Jasper | Jasper AI is paid platform that focuses on large language model AI, and marketing and SEO (Search Engine Optimization). |
| MobileEye | Provides Autonomous Driving chips for auto makers such as Volkswagen, Ford and Porche. MobileEye announced in April of 2024 that it has secured orders to provide 46 million assisted-driving chips to automakers over the next few years. |
| Project Management Institute | PMIxAI is an AI tool that PMI offers, of which project management AI tools are the main focus. |
| SentinelOne | SentinelOne uses AI to focus on CyberSecruity solutions. The technology detects abnormal use in endpoint devices and shuts down processes automatically before harm can be done. It’s notable clients include Samsung, Sysco, Aston Martin, EA software and Politico. It aquired PingSafe a CNAPP (cloud native application protection platform) to further enhance it’s security offerings. It is also expanding its cyber security offerings with a partnership announced this month with Aon |
| SmartSheet | SmartSheet AI focuses on paid services to manage project plans and automate workflows. |
| Tesla | Tesla uses AI in their self driving cars, as well as bipedal robot units. |
| Tempus AI | Founded in 2015, Tempus AI is a healthcare focused company that uses AI to advance precision medicine by providing AI solutions for diagnotics and treatment in several medical areas. |
| UiPath | UiPath focuses on automation of machine learning and automation of routine business tasks, including CRM (customer relations management). Through the acquisition of Re:infer they added natural language processing tools to their AI library. |
References:
https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/sustainability/how-amazon-uses-ai-sustainability-goals
