A consortium of top tech firms have joined forces to launch a security group focused on artificial intelligence applications. The cybersecurity-focused non-profit OASIS will oversee operational aspects of the Coalition for Secure AI, to be known as CoSAI, described as an “open-source community.” OASIS lists Google, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Nvidia and PayPal as founding Premier Sponsors of CoSAI, whose “additional founding sponsors” include Amazon, Anthropic, Cisco, Chainguard, Cohere, GenLab, OpenAI and Wiz. “CoSAI is an initiative to enhance trust and security in AI use and deployment,” OASIS announced at the Aspen Security Forum.

“CoSAI’s scope includes securely building, integrating, deploying, and operating AI systems, focusing on mitigating risks such as model theft, data poisoning, prompt injection, scaled abuse, and inference attacks,” the OASIS announcement explains.

Android Police says the project was shepherded into existence by Google, calling the Alphabet company “steadfast at pulling the team together over the past year in an effort to ‘advance comprehensive security measures for addressing the unique risks that come with AI,’ both short term (those that arise in real time) and long term (those looming).”

In its own blog post, Google emphasizes that the group plans to leverage the Secure AI Framework (SAIF) that Google introduced in summer 2023 as part of the White House initiative to secure voluntary commitments to safe AI from Big Tech and other key players.

CoSAI is launching with two primary objectives, according to SiliconANGLE, “the first is to develop tools and technical guidance that will help organizations secure their AI applications,” and the other is “to create an ecosystem where companies can share AI-related cybersecurity best practices and technologies.”

It will undertake these goals with three initial workstreams —  software supply chain security for AI systems, tracking and preparatory measures to monitor the changing cybersecurity landscape and AI security and governance. With regard to those workstreams, OASIS says there are “plans to add more over time.”

“At CoSAI, we will harness our combined expertise and resources to fast-track the development of robust AI security standards and practices that will benefit the entire industry,” said CoSAI governing board co-chair Omar Santos, who works at Cisco, where his title is “distinguished engineer.”

Fro additional information, visit coalitionforsecureai.org or Google SAIF.