On the margins of the 79th Session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York City, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken launched the Partnership for Global Inclusivity on AI (PGIAI) Monday.
He also announced other initiatives to harness the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) to advance sustainable development globally, as stated in a press note.
The PGIAI brings together the US Department of State, Amazon, Anthropic, Google, IBM, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia, and OpenAI.
Together they commit more than US $100 million leveraging their combined expertise, resources, and networks to unlock AI’s potential as a powerful tool for sustainable development and improved quality of life in developing countries.
The PGIAI will focus on Compute, Capacity and Context.
Among the funding commitments, Secretary Blinken announced that the US would provide $10 million in Foreign Assistance including access to compute credits.
The Department of State plans to provide an additional US $23 million in funding, working with Congress,
Among the participating companies, Amazon Web Services (AWS) announced a donation of US $10 million. Anthropic will provide up to $1 whereas Google is providing US $120 million to support a Global AI Opportunity Fund to make AI education and training available throughout the world. IBM commits up to US $45 million in expertise and technologies whereas Meta will invest more than US $10 million in programmatic support globally to expand open-source AI innovation. Microsoft is contributing more than US $12 billion in AI data center infrastructure, connectivity, and skilling. NVIDIA will provide $10m/year in training programs and OpenAI is launching the OpenAI Academy.
Secretary Blinken also announced the official release of the Global AI Research Agenda and AI in Global Development Playbook – two complementary documents developed by the U.S. government to foster future research collaborations on AI and guide the development community in leveraging AI to advance progress in addressing global development challenges, it added.
These new announcements add to the U.S government’s ongoing efforts to promote inclusivity, respect for human rights, digital solidarity, and equitable access to the benefits of AI globally.
Friends of a Fissile Material Cut-Off Treaty
High level representatives from Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Nigeria, the Philippines, the United Kingdom and the United States of America convened a High-Level Meeting to launch the Friends of a Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty (FMCT) on 23 September 2024 in New York, on the margins of the 79th United Nations General Assembly High Level Week.
Reaffirming that achieving a world without nuclear weapons is a common goal for the international community banning the production of fissile material for nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices that would contribute to nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation.
They also confirmed to work closely together to realize the common objectives of the group underlining the Conference on Disarmament will take this forward as a matter of priority in its work.
The participants also welcomed actions and efforts, said the note.
