Apple has confirmed that is was the sixth founding member of an AI (artificial intelligence) research group formed last September by Amazon, Google, Facebook, Microsoft and IBM. The non-profit alliance aims to establish best practice in AI, and improve public understanding and appreciation of it. There is significant concern that public worries about AI’s possible impact on jobs, privacy and other areas of life will slow or even stall its recent progress in commercial applications. The alliance is open to academics, non-profits and specialists in policy and ethics. Key issues which the group says it needs to address to bolster confidence in AI include privacy, interoperability and collaboration between people and AI systems. If such challenges are met effectively, AI…