In the era of artificial intelligence (AI), corporations, academia, and civil society have launched a nonprofit foundation to enhance online safety.
The 'ROOST' (Robust Open Online Safety Tools) initiative will officially launch on the 10th in conjunction with the 3rd International AI Summit held in Paris, France.
This foundation, based at Columbia University in New York, aims to create a safe internet environment in the AI era. The goal is to build AI-based safety infrastructure in cooperation with major IT corporations and global charitable organizations. Participants include former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, Discord, OpenAI, Google, the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation, and the Project Liberty Institute.
ROOST plans to provide security solutions using AI-based technologies, particularly in the field of online safety issues, especially child protection. This includes support for detecting and reporting child sexual abuse content, developing safety technologies utilizing large language models (LLM), and blocking harmful online content. Additionally, it aims to offer free tools based on open source that can be easily used by anyone in public or private institutions while assisting small businesses and nonprofit organizations in building their own security systems.
ROOST has secured $27 million (approximately 39.1 billion won) in initial funding from IT corporations and charitable organizations over the past four years. It plans to pursue global expansion by collaborating with more corporations and institutions.
Schmidt said, "ROOST will play an important role in accelerating innovations for online child protection and AI safety," adding, "By providing technologies that small businesses and nonprofit organizations could not access, it will enhance internet safety."
Camille François, the representative of ROOST and a professor at Columbia University, stated, "ROOST has opened a new era of collaborative safety innovation," and noted, "By enabling everyone to access powerful safety tools through open source, we will create a more diverse and safe future in the AI era."