A group of leading major technology companies like OpenAI and Discord have raised more than $27 million for a new initiative focused on building open-source tools to boost online safety for kids.
The project, dubbed the Robust Online Safety Tools (ROOST), was created to “build scalable, interoperable safety infrastructure suited for the AI [artificial intelligence] era.”
ROOST, which was announced Monday at the AI Action Summit in Paris, will provide free, open-source tools to detect, review and report child sexual abuse material and use large language models to “power safety infrastructure,” according to a press release for the project.
The founding partners of the ROOST project include Discord, OpenAI, Google, Roblox and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt.
ROOST “addresses a critical need to accelerate innovation in online child safety and AI” and will give small companies and nonprofits access to technologies they would otherwise lack, Schmidt said in a statement Monday.
“We see AI as part of the solution and by combining the expertise of the different partners and sharing that knowledge with smaller companies and public organisations, we can make it easier to introduce robust online safety measures and make the digital world safer for everyone,” Ryan Beiermeister, vice president of OpenAI’s product policy, said Monday.
The $27 million raised so far will cover the first four years of operation for ROOST, which will be run out of the Institute of Global Politics at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs.
It comes amid mounting pressure on social media and technology companies to take action in preventing further harm to children and teens.
According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, reports of suspected online exploitation of children increased by 12 percent in 2023 from the previous year, amounting to more than 36.2 million reports.
As AI development continues to ramp up, the project will harness the emerging technology to track and take down child exploitation on the internet.
Other organizations including the AI Collaborative, Project Liberty Institute, Patrick J. McGovern Foundation and Knight Foundation are also founding partners, while other groups like Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) and social media platform Bluesky are partners. Bluesky rose in popularity late last year as some users on X departed the platform in the wake of Elon Musk’s leadership.
Discord was one of five companies to testify before a Senate committee last year that brought kids online safety into the spotlight. The company was notably not a large focus of the hearing, but has launched various efforts over the past year to boost the safety and privacy of Discord.
“Offering a platform that is safe and that fosters meaningful connection, especially for young people, is at the center of everything we do,” Kate Sheerin, head of U.S. public policy, told The Hill last month when asked about the one-year anniversary of the hearing.
Ahead of Safer Internet Day on Tuesday, Discord also launched a new feature “Ignore,” which will allow users to “take space” from specific users without their knowledge. While there is currently a block feature, some users told Discord the feature can feel “confrontational and scary,” the company said.
