Howie Choset, the Kavcic-Moura Professor of Computer Science, has joined the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (GPAI), an international group founded this year by the United States and 14 other nations to shape a global agenda on how best to use AI to benefit society.

Choset was invited by the White House's Office of Science and Technology Policy to join the group as one of a handful of U.S. experts. The GPAI was launched by the technology ministers of the Group of Seven nations, "to shape the evolution of AI in a way that respects fundamental rights and upholds our shared values," Michael Kratsios, the U.S. chief technology officer, explained in a May editorial in the Wall Street Journal.

Choset belongs to the GPAI's Working Group on Responsible AI and participates in its AI and Pandemic Response subgroup. Choset said a major meeting on AI and COVID-19 is being planned for this December in Montreal.

"The central idea of the GPAI is AI for social good," Choset said. "It's about ensuring that AI is used for societal benefit rather than commercial applications."

In addition to the U.S., the founding member nations include Australia, Canada, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, the Republic of Korea, Singapore, Slovenia, the United Kingdom and the European Union. The GPAI includes working groups on data governance, the future of work, and innovation and commercialization, as well as responsible AI.