The member states of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) have agreed on a text of recommended ethics for artificial intelligence (AI) that policy makers can apply on a “voluntary” basis.
The adopted
text, which the agency calls “historic”, outlines the “common values and
principles which will guide the construction of the necessary legal
infrastructure to ensure the healthy development of AI,” UNESCO says.
The text specifies that AI systems “should not be used for social scoring and mass surveillance
purposes,” among other recommendations.
The
organization’s 193 member states include countries, however, that are known to
use AI and other technologies to carry out such surveillance, often targeting
minorities and dissidents - including writers and artists. Governments and multinational
companies have also used personal data and AI technology to infringe on
privacy.
Presenting the agreement
Nov. 25 at the organization’s headquarters in Paris, UNESCO’s Director-General
Audrey Azoulay said the initiative to have an AI ethics framework had been
launched in 2018.
“I remember
that many thought it would be extremely hard if not impossible to attain common ground among the 193 states … but after these years of work, we’ve been
rewarded by this important victory for multilateralism,” Azoulay told
journalists.
She pointed out
that AI technology has been developing rapidly and that it entails a range of profound effects that comprise both advantages
to humanity and wide-ranging risks. Because of such impact, a global accord
with practical recommendations was necessary, based on input from experts
around the world, Azoulay stressed.
The accord came
during the 41st session of UNESCO’s General Conference, which took place Nov. 9
to 24 and included the adoption of “key agreements demonstrating renewed
multilateral cooperation,” UNESCO said.
While the accord
does not provide a single definition of AI, the “ambition” is to address the
features of AI that are of “central ethical relevance,” according to the text.
While the systems
are “delivering remarkable results in highly specialized fields such as cancer
screening and building inclusive environments for people with disabilities”, they
are equally creating new challenges and raising “fundamental ethical concerns,”
UNESCO said.
The agreement outlines
the biases that AI technologies can “embed and exacerbate” and their
potential impact on “human dignity, human rights and fundamental freedoms,
gender equality, democracy … and the environment and ecosystems.”
According to
UNESCO, these types of technologies “are very invasive, they infringe on human
rights and fundamental freedoms, and they are used in a broad way.”
The agreement
stresses that when member states develop regulatory frameworks, they should “take
into account that ultimate responsibility and accountability must always lie
with natural or legal persons” - that is, humans - “and that AI systems should
not be given legal personality” themselves.
“New
technologies need to provide new means to advocate, defend and exercise human
rights and not to infringe them,” the agreement says.
Among the long
list of goals, UNESCO said that the accord aims to ensure that digital
transformations contribute as well to the achievement of the Sustainable
Development Goals” (a UN blueprint to achieve a “better and more sustainable
future” for the world).
“We see
increased gender and ethnic bias, significant threats to privacy, dignity and
agency, dangers of mass surveillance, and increased use of unreliable AI
technologies in law enforcement, to name a few. Until now, there were no
universal standards to provide an answer to these issues,” UNESCO declared.
Regarding
climate change, the text says that member states should make sure that AI favours
methods that are resource- and energy-efficient, given the impact on the
environment of storing huge amounts of data, which requires energy. It additionally
asks governments to assess the direct and indirect environmental impact
throughout the AI system life cycle.
It adds that states
“must ensure that the human rights and fundamental freedoms of girls and women,
and their safety and integrity are not violated at any stage of the AI system
life cycle.”
Alessandra
Sala, director of Artificial Intelligence and Data Science at Shutterstock and
president of the non-profit organization Women in AI, also spoke at the presentation of the agreement, saying that the text provides clear guidelines
for the AI field, including on artistic, cultural and gender issues.
“It is a symbol
of societal progress,” she told journalists, emphasizing that understanding the ethics of AI was
a shared “leadership responsibility” which should include women’s often
“excluded voices”.
In answer to concerns raised by reporters about the future of the recommendations, which are essentially non-binding, UNESCO officials said that member states realize that the world “needs” this agreement and that it was a step in the right direction. - SWAN
Photos (top to bottom): UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay; a robot seen at a UNESCO conference; Alessandra Sala, of Shutterstock and Women in AI. (Photos by AM/SWAN.)
