Artificial Intelligence and emerging technologies

Recommendation on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence

AI Ethics for the people

The rapid developments of artificial intelligence (AI) have created many opportunities globally, such as facilitating healthcare diagnoses and treatment, opening access to more tailored learning, and creating new means to safeguard and protect cultural diversity, among many others.

However, these changes also raise profound ethical concerns. These arise from the way AI systems are developed, designed, deployed, and used, which may lead to reproducing and amplifying biases, contributing to climate degradation, threatening human rights, and more.

In November 2021, UNESCO's 193 Member States adopted the first global standard on AI ethics: the Recommendation on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence.

At its core, it states that AI must respect human rights and human dignity. It is grounded in key principles such as transparency, fairness, environmental sustainability, and human oversight of AI systems, which guide its ethical framework.

This Recommendation doesn’t focus only on ethical values and principles but also lays out concrete policy recommendations to help implement them, across policy areas from gender to data to international cooperation.

Read the full Recommendation

©UNESCO

Core values

Central to the Recommendation are four core values which lay the foundations of AI systems that work for the good of humanity, individuals, societies and the environment:

Respecting and promoting human dignity and human rights

Fostering just, peaceful, and interconnected societies

Ensuring diversity and inclusiveness

Supporting flourishing of environment and ecosystems

Core principles: A human rights approach to AI

Ten core principles

These principles outline a human- rights centred approach to the ethics of AI. They provide a shared ethical foundation to guide the development, deployment, and governance of artificial intelligence:

1. Proportionality and do no harm

The use of AI systems must not go beyond what is necessary to achieve a legitimate aim. Risk assessment should be used to prevent harms which may result from such uses.

2. Safety and security

Unwanted harms (safety risks) as well as vulnerabilities to attack (security risks) should be avoided and addressed by AI actors.

3. Right to privacy and data protection

Privacy must be protected and promoted throughout the AI lifecycle. Adequate data protection frameworks should also be established.

4. Multi-stakeholder and adaptive governance and collaboration

International law and national sovereignty must be respected in the use of data. Additionally, participation of diverse stakeholders is necessary for inclusive approaches to AI governance.

5. Responsibility and accountability

AI systems should be auditable and traceable. There should be oversight, impact assessment, audit and due diligence mechanisms in place to avoid conflicts with human rights norms and threats to environmental wellbeing.

6. Transparency and explainability

The ethical deployment of AI systems depends on their transparency and explainability (T&E). The level of T&E should be appropriate to the context, as there may be tensions between T&E and other principles such as privacy, safety and security.

7. Human oversight and determination

Member States should ensure that AI systems do not displace ultimate human responsibility and accountability.

8. Sustainability

AI technologies should be assessed against their impacts on sustainability, understood as a set of constantly evolving goals including those set out in the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.

9. Awareness and literacy

Public understanding of AI and data should be promoted through open and accessible education, civic engagement, digital skills and AI ethics training, media and information literacy.

10. Fairness and non-discrimination

AI actors should promote social justice, fairness, and non-discrimination while taking an inclusive approach to ensure AI’s benefits are accessible to all.

Areas of policy action

Key policy areas operationalise the values and principles set out in the Recommendation.

The policy actions can guide societies in dealing responsibly with the known and unknown impacts of AI technologies on human beings, societies and the environment and ecosystems, and offers them a basis to accept or reject AI technologies.