Current AI, a public interest initiative focused on fostering and steering the development of AI in societally beneficial directions, was announced at the French AI Action summit on Monday. It’s kicking off with an initial $400 million in pledges from backers and a plan to pull in $2.5 billion more over the next five years. The initiative’s primary mission is to scale both public and private financing for critical AI projects that serve public interests, with a focus on widening access to datasets, supporting open-source tools, and developing systems to measure AI’s social and environmental impacts.
Core partners include U.S. tech giants Google and Salesforce, along with the French government and philanthropic organizations such as The Ford Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and AI Collaborative. The initiative expects to unveil new supporters in the coming months, demonstrating its growing influence and reach.
Three Main Tracks for Current AI’s Efforts
Current AI’s work will span three tracks. Firstly, it will provide financial support to the sector in the form of direct contributions. It will also seek to play an incubating role — aiming to, for example, support research to nurture AI innovations. Thirdly, it will work on aligning funding so that different funders can collaborate on shared goals and objectives. This approach will help consolidate efforts to develop AI solutions in areas such as healthcare and climate.
“It’s important to have more diversity in the AI field,” said Martin Tisné, founder of Current AI. The initiative also emphasizes ensuring that high-value datasets are accessible in privacy-preserving ways, incentivizing the development of smaller, open AI models that are more environmentally friendly, and scaling up open-source AI for improved transparency, safety, and accessibility.
Current AI’s goal is to help unlock new data access, as Tisné explained: “I think what’s happening is you’ve got a data bottleneck coming in artificial intelligence, because we’re running out of road with data on the web, effectively… and here, what we need is to really unlock innovations in how to make data accessible and available.”
Learning from Successful AI Projects
A key part of Current AI’s approach is learning from successful projects like AlphaFold, which was developed using public datasets such as the Protein Data Bank. Tisné emphasized, “AlphaFold was developed on the base of a public data set, including, but not limited to the Protein Data Bank. So a big focus of ours is going to be on data from that perspective.”
To help drive this vision, the initiative will also focus on bolstering open-source infrastructure and tooling, ensuring these tools are as seamless and usable as proprietary tools, and supporting AI accountability by working toward standards for auditing AI systems with involvement from diverse populations and communities.
What The Author Thinks
The launch of Current AI is a significant step toward ensuring that artificial intelligence is developed with public good in mind. By focusing on data accessibility, diversity, and transparency, the initiative has the potential to not only advance AI technology but also ensure that it serves broader societal needs, particularly in critical areas like healthcare and climate. If successful, Current AI could play a pivotal role in shaping a more inclusive and responsible AI future, with a strong emphasis on open-source tools and collaboration.
