Dear Partners,

Thank you for being part of the PAI community. As we enter our fifth year, it is time to take stock of what we’ve accomplished together and what comes next to ensure that we are pursuing a future where AI technologies empower humanity by contributing to a more just, equitable, and prosperous world.

To that end, we have begun a review of the Partnership’s strategic directions, investing in efforts with the board of directors and with the staff to reflect on where we have had impact, and to determine where we can and should focus in the next five years—so the next phase of our trajectory has maximal impact.

Over the next two months, we want to hear your thoughts on where our multistakeholder community might best focus our forthcoming collaborative efforts. Together, we seek to answer questions such as:

• What are the rising critical questions around the responsible development and fielding of AI technologies?
• As a unique multistakeholder organization, what could and should be PAI’s contribution to the responsible AI ecosystem—and to the world?
• How can PAI continue to support your organization’s priorities as a valued Partner?
• What new ways of working will allow PAI to more effectively bring together diverse voices across global sectors, disciplines, and demographics?

 
We have gained a great deal through collaboration with our partners who have given time, expertise and goodwill to advance PAI projects in our first years. Your input and support were absolutely essential in launching the organization and taking it into the air.  Your input helped us to formulate our key projects and directions in our first fast-paced years. Efforts include advances in setting new norms in policy and practice, including our work on ABOUT ML, providing resources on the state of technology and policy, such as the work on facial recognition, reporting on criminal justice regimes that expose systemic challenges in current applications of AI, and the new effort on establishing a database of incidents of AI harms.

On a critically important set of considerations, we understand that we have work to do to bring to light, explore, and act to counter structural power differences within PAI’s community—one that stretches across continents and sectors.  Since our inception, we have continued to reflect on how PAI can best include, engage, and serve a diverse group of voices and perspectives.  We are deeply committed to catalyzing and generating positive outcomes in society and understand that this includes addressing deep, systemic challenges.

While we chart our future directions, our work together advances. This year, PAI will be issuing timely new reports on topic such as: Responsible Publications Norms for AI researchers, labs and research organizations, covering publication of results in the private and public sectors; Diversity and Attrition in AI Workplaces including a study of systemic attrition of women and underrepresented minorities; and Responsible Sourcing and Labor conditions in AI focusing on professionals who clean and label training data or contribute human judgment to AI systems.

Thank you for all that you have given in our formative years with generosity—and optimism about the possibilities.

Sincerely,

Rebecca Finlay, Acting Executive Director & Eric Horvitz, Chair, Board of Directors