US Government and Tech Giants Collaborate on $100 Million Global AI Initiative

US Announces $100 Million In AI Partnership With NVIDIA, OpenAI, Meta & Others For Global AI Use

This is not investment advice. The author has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Wccftech.com has a disclosure and ethics policy. At an AI Summit at the United Nations earlier today, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced $100 million in funding and private sector commitments in partnership with USAID to help expand the reach of artificial intelligence technologies worldwide. Secretary Blinken was joined by executives from OpenAI, NVIDIA, Amazon, Microsoft, IBM, Anthropic, Jacaranda Health, Google and Meta, who announced their firms' initiatives to spread the use of AI across the globe to ensure communities all over the world can benefit from the technology that has taken Wall Street and the broader tech sector by storm since 2022. OpenAI Announces OpenAI Academy To Enable Developers In Developing Nations Access To Latest AI Tools Secretary Blinken made the announcement as part of the State Department's Partnership of Global Inclusivity on AI, which aims to give "more people, in more places, the power to unleash opportunities" offered by AI. AI data centers, which sit at the heart of training models such as OpenAI's ChatGPT, require billions of dollars in data center investments which often makes them out of reach for resource constrained organizations. Blinken shared that inclusivity will aid the effectiveness of AI in helping humanity solve challenges such as "rising temperatures, deadly viruses. . .food insecurity," which makes making AI inclusive "not an act of generosity" but an act that is "our national interest, and in the interest of our firms, of our entrepreneurs, of our investors." The new partnership will focus on AI computing, capacity, and context, as outlined by Blinken. Investments in computing will enable developers in mid and low income countries to develop AI models and applications that are attuned to local needs. AI capacity investments will enable countries to "genuinely build capacity" to enable more people to "use and adapt AI tools." Finally, on the contextual front, he added that it will enable localized solutions to cater to localized data sets. As for the funding, Blinked revealed that his department and USAID "will spend $33 million in US foreign assistance on AI development." Out of these, $10 million will be spent on expanding access. Additionally, Congress will provide $23 million "for programs to provide $23 million for programs to build on our efforts to develop safe, reliable, trustworthy AI governance frameworks. Use AI to advance human rights and development priorities, and promote educational and cultural exchanges on AI related topics." In total, the commitments under the public private partnership will total $100 million, according to Blinken. Later, during the event, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman announced that his firm is launching the OpenAI academy, which will provide developers and organizations in low and middle income countries with access to and training for OpenAI's technologies. Microsoft's President Brad Smith shared that his company has committed to spending over $12 billion to build AI data centers in Latin America, Southeast Asia, and Africa. Microsoft will also provide $500 million in free access to more than 30,000 nonprofits in the Global South, Smith added. Google's senior VP of technology and society, James Manyika, shared that his firm plans to increase support for Google Translate to over 1,000 languages soon. Google deploying AI enabled flood forecasting tools to cover nearly half a billion people worldwide. Meta's vice president of AI research, Joelle Pineau, stated that Meta will invest more than $10 million in support for open source AI innovation in 2024 and 2025 to increase AI access to communities in Latin America, Africa and Asia. NVIDIA's vice president and global head of government affairs, Ned Finkle, outlined that his firm is committing $10 million a year to up skill AI developers in emerging countries under its partnership with the State Department.

US State Department and Big Tech Will Invest $100 Million in Global AI Access

Imad is a senior reporter covering Google and internet culture. Hailing from Texas, Imad started his journalism career in 2013 and has amassed bylines with The New York Times, The Washington Post, ESPN, Tom's Guide and Wired, among others. At the US State Department's safe and trustworthy AI event during the UN General Assembly 79 in New York, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken took the stage with Big Tech leaders on Monday to announce over $100 million in investment bringing AI technologies to developing countries. Blinken discussed how countries most impacted by global challenges also deserve to have easy access to AI to help solve major problems. The State Department -- along with OpenAI, Microsoft, IBM, Amazon, Google, Meta, Nvidia and Anthropic -- committed to advancing AI technology and availability to countries in the Global South. This initiative means AI training for individuals and businesses, as well as the opening of data centers, plus access to discounted hardware and computer resources to help people achieve their goals. For Blinken, investing in AI around the world isn't only a moral imperative, but a security requirement as well. "This disparity hurts all of us," Blinken said in a speech at the UN. He added that inclusivity means people around the world can help solve local issues, which can ease stress around the world. "Food insecurity can lead to conflict and mass migration." Blinken praised tech partners for their help on this initiative and wants to help countries increase their AI capacity by creating localized context-specific datasets in their own languages. With the mass adoption of AI tools from Big Tech players like Google, Microsoft, Meta and OpenAI, there's been concern that the technology has been moving faster than corresponding government regulation. Earlier this year, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution pushing for safe AI adoption toward global good. The European Union also adopted the Artificial Intelligence Act to establish a regularity and legal framework and put restrictions on AI technologies that are at high risk of causing harm. In response, Big Tech is lobbying to limit the effects of the EU AI Act. As goverments move to rein in the risks of AI proliferation, it isn't stopping actors and governments from around the world from pushing the technology or using it in dangerous ways. The use of AI technology was reportedly used to quickly bomb Hamas targets in Gaza, leading to massive destruction and rapidly accumulating civilian deaths, according to reporting from 972 Magazine and The Guardian. "We have to focus on security and we have to focus on ensuring the models don't return the most dangerous outcomes that can be misused by bad actors," said Nathaniel Fick, ambassador at large for the Bureau of Cyberspace and Digital Policy at the State Department, when speaking to the press after the event. "But fundamentally, as policymakers, we need to have our eye on the North Star of innovation and opportunity because AI can fundamentality alter the trajectory toward achieving the UN sustainable development goals." Fick added that the goal of this initiative, as well as with the UN's larger AI goals, is to focus on the architectural level of AI development worldwide and to build broad international consensus on a set of AI principles. Ultimately, Blinken said no one country has a monopoly on good ideas and that empowering all people is necessary. "For every problem, someone has the beginnings of an answer," Blinken said.