Mozilla, the organization behind the Firefox browser, on Wednesday launched an artificial intelligence-focused startup, called Mozilla.ai, that will work toward building an independent, trustworthy, open-source AI ecosystem.
“The vision for Mozilla.ai is to make it easy to develop trustworthy AI products,” Mark Surman, Mozilla’s executive president and a Mozilla.ai board member, wrote in a blog post.
Surman wrote he and his organization have met people who want to develop AI that prioritizes transparency, accountability and human agency and the interests of users. However, Surman and Mozilla didn’t think this approach was being embraced by other tech companies, so they decided to launch this startup.
“Mozilla.ai will be a space outside big tech and academia for like-minded founders, developers, scientists, product managers and builders to gather,” he wrote. “We believe that this group of people, working collectively, can turn the tide to create an independent, decentralized and trustworthy AI ecosystem — a real counterweight to the status quo.”
The initial focus for Mozilla.ai, Surman wrote, will be on tools that make generative AI, like ChatGPT, safer and more transparent, as well as recommendation systems that don’t misinform people, according to Surman.
Mozilla made a $30 million initial investment in Mozilla.ai. Moez Draief, formerly the chief scientist at Huawei’s Noah’s Ark lab, will be the organization’s managing director, and a three-person board, which Surman is a member of, will also help lead it.
The launch of Mozilla.ai comes as more companies release AI tools. Google opened up a waitlist for its AI tool Bard a day before Mozilla.ai’s launch. Other tech companies, like DuckDuckGo, Grammarly and Adobe, have also released AI tools.
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