Facebook is providing an initial grant of $7.5 million over the space of five years, and says it might also share its own findings and tools. TUM's Dr. Christoph Lütge will lead the Institute with the help of an advisory board that includes people from the academic world, business and civil society. The new research hub will also be free to not only publish its work, but to collaborate with outside experts and institutions.

The move comes as Facebook continues to grapple with its own AI-related ethics issues. People have accused it of political bias and other forms of discrimination through its algorithms, which handle tasks ranging from prioritization of your News Feed to content filtering and ad targeting. Outside ethics research could help Facebook keep its AI fair and prevent incidents it otherwise wouldn't have anticipated.