Search for the Executive Director Partnership on AI

A global organization at the forefront of understanding and addressing the influences of advances in artificial intelligence (AI) on people and society, the Partnership on Artificial Intelligence to Benefit People and Society is looking for a founding Executive Director. By bringing together some of the world’s biggest companies and outstanding independent nonprofits, the Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (PAI, or the Partnership) will play a central role in identifying societal opportunities and concerns with AI and engage in such activities as the formulation of best practices, hosting of multi- stakeholder discussions, developing education materials, and creation of projects and programs on AI, people, and society.

The Executive Director (ED) will lead efforts to advance the mission of the Partnership, driving its activities and goals, facilitating open dialogue and collaboration among Partner organizations, setting the strategic priorities of the organization, and managing day-to-day operations.

In the course of this work, the ED will convene and work closely with organizations and leading researchers and experts from a diverse range of areas related to AI. The ED will play a pivotal role in helping PAI contribute to the debate on AI-related topics that will deeply impact society and the world around us. The founding ED will provide a critical role in the launch of the organization and long-term success of the organization.

About the Partnership on Artificial Intelligence

There have been tremendous advances in the development and application of AI technologies over the past few years. We have reached a point of inflection. The upswing in AI applications—fueled by data, computation, and advances in algorithms for machine learning, perception, planning, and natural language—is poised to deliver great value to people and society. However, concerns and challenges are coming into sharper view about the effects of these technologies on people’s lives and on society more broadly.

These concerns include the safety and trustworthiness of AI technologies; the fairness, transparency and accountability of AI systems; the impact these technologies have on the expectations and rights of individuals, such as privacy, equality, personal autonomy, and security; and the intentional as well as inadvertent influences of AI on people and society. On another front, while AI promises new capabilities and efficiencies, the advent of these new technologies has raised understandable questions about the disruptions to the nature and distribution of jobs in different domains and how that impacts people.

We also believe that there will be great opportunities to harness AI methods to solve important societal challenges. We designed the Partnership on AI in part so that we can invest more attention and effort on harnessing AI to contribute to solutions of some of humanity’s most challenging problems, while also seeking to mitigate the ethical and human rights concerns. We are excited about the prospect of coming together to collaborate on addressing concerns, rough edges, and rising challenges around AI, as well as to work together to pursue the grand opportunities and possibilities of the long-term dream of mastering the computational science of intelligence in a responsible and ethical way.

Isaacson, Miller

Executive Director Partnership on Artificial Intelligence

The activities of PAI will be determined by its Partners, but from the outset the hope has been to create a place for open critique and reflection. It is our intention that the Partnership on AI will be collaborative, constructive, and work openly with all. Crucially, the Partnership on AI has been explicitly designed to bring together researchers, academics, businesses, advocates, representatives from diverse communities, policy makers and all with an interest in this endeavor, in a structure that ensures balanced governance by diverse stakeholders.

Background

The Partnership was born out of a desire to address challenges and opportunities around the applications and influences of AI. The mission of the Partnership is driven by a Board composed of an equal number of profit and non-profit Trustees, and Partner organizations across for-profit, academia and non-profit organizations.

Announced in September 2016, the Partnership was established in February 2017 by senior research scientists from some of the world’s leading technology companies working in the AI field (Amazon, Apple, DeepMind/Google, Facebook, IBM and Microsoft). From the outset, by uniting these companies and adding six Trustees from non-profit organizations spanning civil liberties, philanthropy and academia, the Partnership seeks to draw on diversity of thought as a strength. The following tenets are at the core of the Partnership:

1. We will seek to ensure that AI technologies benefit and empower as many people as possible. 2. We will educate and listen to the public and actively engage stakeholders to seek their feedback on our focus, inform them of our work, and address their questions. 3. We are committed to open research and dialog on the ethical, social, economic, and legal implications of AI. 4. We believe that AI research and development efforts need to be actively engaged with and accountable to a broad range of stakeholders. 5. We will engage with and have representation from stakeholders in the business community to help ensure that domain-specific concerns and opportunities are understood and addressed. 6. We will work to maximize the benefits and address the potential challenges of AI technologies, by: a. Working to protect the privacy and security of individuals. b. Striving to understand and respect the interests of all parties that may be impacted by AI advances. c. Working to ensure that AI research and engineering communities remain socially responsible, sensitive, and engaged directly with the potential influences of AI technologies on wider society. d. Ensuring that AI research and technology is robust, reliable, trustworthy, and operates within secure constraints. e. Opposing development and use of AI technologies that would violate international conventions or human rights, and promoting safeguards and technologies that do no harm. 7. We believe that it is important for the operation of AI systems to be understandable and interpretable by people, for purposes of explaining the technology. 8. We strive to create a culture of cooperation, trust, and openness among AI scientists and engineers to help us all better achieve these goals.

To deliver the mission and further the tenets, the Partnership has the following goals:  Develop and share best practices;

Isaacson, Miller Page 2 of 5 Executive Director Partnership on Artificial Intelligence

 Advance public understanding, mediating a balanced view that takes the position of multiple Partners into account;  Provide an open and inclusive platform for discussion and engagement about AI and its influences on people and society;  Identify and foster aspirational efforts in AI for socially beneficial purposes.

Initial efforts will be organized around a set of thematic pillars. These areas of focus may evolve over time as the Partnership pursues activities and gathers new input and feedback from stakeholders. 1. Safety-critical AI in areas such as healthcare and transportation 2. Fair, Transparent, and Accountable AI especially in areas such as biomedicine, public health, safety, criminal justice, education and sustainability 3. Collaborations between people and AI systems 4. AI, labor and the economy 5. Social and societal influences of AI on, for example, privacy, democracy, human rights 6. AI for social good – supporting and catalyzing efforts in areas such as education, housing, public health, sustainability 7. Special initiatives – especially those that benefit from the Partnership’s diverse range of Partners

The Partnership aims to stand up multiple activities, such as sector- and topic-specific Working Groups that will commission research on specific issues, hold roundtables and collaborative workshops, and formulate best practices. We will seek to promote and support areas of study through research grants, best paper awards at conferences and potentially grand challenges. The Partnership is also committed to educating and engaging more people about the AI field by producing different kinds of web-based content, hosting public engagement forums of different formats and holding listening sessions and calls for input.

PAI is committed to having balanced representation at the leadership, executive, and operations levels, as well as being committed to equal opportunities.

For more information about the Partnership, please see: www.partnershiponai.org.

Role of the Executive Director

The Executive Director will help build a dynamic partnership of organizations committed to advancing AI for the benefit of people and society. S/he will help build the organization from the ground up and drive activities that further the Partnership’s goals and tenets.

The Executive Director will work closely with the Board of Trustees of the Partnership and will be responsible for setting the strategic priorities of the organization and for managing the day-to-day operations.

Key Opportunities for the Executive Director

In order to effectively build and lead the Partnership, the ED will be expected to seize and execute upon the following opportunities:

Isaacson, Miller Page 3 of 5 Executive Director Partnership on Artificial Intelligence

Translate the vision and goals of PAI into an impactful strategy

 Set and deliver the priorities and strategic plan for the organization, in consultation with the Board of Trustees and informed by PAI’s goals and tenets  Ensure that the strategy can raise the profile of PAI in order to further the goals and tenets  Develop targets for the program of work undertaken by PAI and regularly evaluate progress to continuously learn and improve

Build a vibrant, collaborative, and diverse global group of Partner organizations that engage in an ambitious program of activities

 Engage Partners around the agenda of the organization and ensure they are active in their participation across a program of activities  Stimulate meaningful, inclusive, and open conversations around pressing issues in AI  Work with the Board to attract new Partners to join PAI from the for-profit, academic, advocacy, and nonprofit sectors

Create operations, infrastructure, and culture for a new organization

 Manage the creation of an organization from the ground up, including hiring key staff and establishing a fast-paced, collaborative, impact-oriented culture  Lead day-to-day operations, including developing a budget, fund-raising, and overseeing the finances and investment of the organization

Ensure the development of best practices that have real impact

 Engage foremost researchers and thought leaders in technology, industry, and civil society  Seek out and support ground-breaking and influential third-party research and studies that further understanding and best practices  Influence Partner organizations to adopt best practices that are co-created through the Partnership

Communicate the learnings and insights of PAI to a broad public audience

 Develop and implement a public engagement and media strategy in conjunction with the Board and PR/Communications team that includes the development of informational materials on AI  Create an organization that can act as a trusted and expert point of contact on questions, concerns, and aspirations from the public  Share findings produced through PAI and encourage action with external stakeholders including policymakers, governments, and others

Identify and foster aspirational efforts in AI for socially beneficial purposes

 Seek out, support, and draw attention to aspirational efforts in AI for socially benevolent applications  Identify areas of untapped opportunity that might draw on the strengths of the Partnership and enable them  Reach out and coordinate with other non-profits, including NGOs and academic researchers and groups aligned on AI and social good.

Isaacson, Miller Page 4 of 5 Executive Director Partnership on Artificial Intelligence

Qualifications and Characteristics

The ideal candidate will be thoroughly committed to PAI’s tenets and mission and have proven leadership and management experience. Concrete experience, qualifications, and characteristics should include:

 At least five years’ experience managing at the top level of a high-profile organization  Experience convening and facilitating open and constructive dialogue across multiple stakeholder groups with different backgrounds and views  Experience managing multiple internal and external stakeholders, both individual and institutional, at senior levels  Comfort with a start-up environment and ability to effectively navigate ambiguity  Experience translating strategy to impact at pace  Experience of working successfully with a diverse Board of Directors, or similar decision-making body  Willingness and ability to travel  Affable, enjoys working with diverse groups of people, with a sense of humility and a deep desire to learn

Applications, Inquiries, and Nominations

The Partnership on Artificial Intelligence has retained the executive search firm Isaacson, Miller, to assist in this search. Screening of complete applications will begin immediately and continue until the position is filled. For more details, including the full position profile and to submit inquiries, nominations, referrals, and applications, please see the Isaacson, Miller website for the search: www.imsearch.com/6111. Electronic submission of materials is required.

David Bellshaw, Andrew Lee, Emily Chiswick-Patterson, and Rebecca Isaacson Isaacson, Miller 1000 Sansome Street, Suite 300 San Francisco, CA 94111 Phone: 415.655.4900

Isaacson, Miller Page 5 of 5