Giving Compass' Take: 

• Google unveiled a new initiative called AI for Social Good provides advanced technology for projects that will have a positive social impact. 

• How can other bigger tech companies utilize their products for social good? Are we seeing this more as corporate social responsibility becomes a priority for businesses? 

• Read about the role of existing institutions in AI strategy.

Google on Monday unveiled a new initiative, called AI for Social Good, that aims to steer the company's vast resources and expertise in artificial intelligence to projects with positive impacts on society. The initiative is a joint effort between Google.org, the company's philanthropic arm, and Google engineers and researchers. It's kicking off with the AI Impact Challenge, which will dole out $25 million in grant funding as well as access to Google resources to global nonprofits.

"Artificial intelligence is not only helping people create more useful products," Google's AI chief Jeff Dean said Monday. "It's also emerging as a useful tool for improving the society we live in."

The initiative comes as Google and other technology giants are facing hard ethical questions about the applications of their technologies. Still, the initiative does aim to help Google adhere to the set of AI ethical principles it laid out following the blowback it received over its Pentagon contract. The initiative, Google says, focuses on the very first objective Google set forth: "be socially beneficial."

Meanwhile, as Google highlights its positive projects, it doesn't intend to back away from potentially controversial contracts.

Dean showcased one such project: an augmented reality microscope that can help pathologists more easily spot cancer cells. The project has yet to clear the regulatory hurdles to be deployed in the US. However, deployment in the US isn't really how the technology could have the biggest impact, Bob MacDonald, technical program manager for Google's healthcare AI team, told ZDNet.

Read the full article about Google AI is helping nonprofits by Stephanie Condon at ZDNet