Artificial Intelligence is rapidly becoming a powerful asset in some of the largest global companies. The use of this technology ethically as well as socially is a big concern. Combatting these concerns (among others) are five main tech companies - Amazon, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and IBM.

The five companies have established a research group by the name of Partnership on AI. A recent addition to this coalition is Apple. It has officially joined the ranks alongside six new trustees from nonprofits and corporate. The new additions are cementing the position of the Partnership in the AI industry as the foremost research group.

In a blog post, the Partnership stated: "This is a pivotal moment for the Partnership on AI, as we establish a diverse and balanced Board of Trustees that extends and broadens our existing leadership."

Apple was not part of the Partnership last year but joined as a founding member this year. The reason behind this is because the company is "involved and collaborating with the Partnership since before it was first announced."

Among the new trustees joining are Dario Amodei of OpenAI and Carol Rose of the ACLU. OpenAI is a similar industry AI research group which was established by Elon Musk and Sam Altman, the Combinator president.

The co-founder of DeepMind, Mustafa Suleyman, spoke in a conference call last year and stated that the Partnership is committed to an open dialogue about the ethics of AI. Being co-chair of the group, he also added: "The positive impact of AI will depend not only on the quality of our algorithms but the on the amount of public discussion ... to ensure AI is understood by and benefits as many people as possible."

Apple's extent of research in AI has previously been kept on the low. However, when the topic gained prominence last year, the company is letting on with more than it used to. Press access was granted by Apple to the machine learning division and it also made AI a bigger part of its product events.

With companies announcing their breakthroughs in AI research, the real effect of AI on society is eventually going to be harder to manage and more dramatic than anticipated.