The UNESCO Recommendation on AI Ethics is the first global recommendation on AI Ethics agreed by all the 193 member states during the 41st UNESCO General Conference at the end of 2021. With efforts from the Ad Hoc Expert Group, the UNESCO secretariate, reginal and intergovernmental consultations and negotiations, etc., the recommendation is a world effort that reaches commonly agreed principles and policies by human society as a whole.
https://en.unesco.org/artificial-intelligence/ethics
Appointed by UNESCO Director-General, Audrey Azoulay, the Director of the International Research Center for AI Ethics and Governance (AIEG), Prof. Yi Zeng serves as one of the 24 experts in the UNESCO Ad Hoc Expert Group for drafting the AI Ethics recommendation. In the later process, Yi also contribute to the intergovernmental consultation process as a representative of China.
Now UNESCO and member states have entered the implementation phase for the recommendation. The International Research Center for AI Ethics and Governance (AIEG) is volunteerly and actively contributing to the implementation of UNESCO recommendations on AI Ethics. Concrete implementations of the UNESCO global recommendations will be a series of continuous efforts across the coming years. The AIEG center is starting the contribution to the implementation from the following perspectives.
- AI Governance Online: Incorporating UNESCO AI Ethics recommendation as the core for the online service AI Governance Online and connect the recommendation with the other regional, governmental and NGO principles. The platform is designed to provide self-regulation service to AI related industries, governments and the general public. Linking AI principles has also incorporate UNESCO recommendation in its matrix to be compared with other principles and guidelines related to AI Ethics and Governance.
- AI for SDGs Think Tank: To promote achieving UN Sustainable Development Goals by using AI, The AI for SDGs Think Tank is extending its contents with more representative cases related to different pillars of Sustainable Development Goals and make these information publicly available for everyone.
- Cultural Interactions Engine: To promote AI for cultural heritage and interactions, and powered by AI technologies such as Natural Language Processing and Machine Learning, the Cultural Interactions Engine is aimed at providing linkages and interactions among various cultural heritages inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List. It shows how different cultural heritages from various geolocations and cultures are connected to and different from each other. By this effort, we see how we, human species as a whole, contribute to the human civilizations in complementary and interconnected way.
- AI Carbon Efficiency Observatory: To promote AI for ecology sustainability and climate actions, by analyzing the output of AI algorithms and applications from related literatures and projects, The project of AI Carbon Efficiency Observatory (AI-CEO) aims at providing comprehensive evaluations on various AI models and applications about whether the empowerment through AI are efficient from the perspective of Carbon Efficiency. Project AI-CEO is aimed at promoting the sustainable, green development of AI and empowerment through AI.
Together with research fellows and collaborating fellows, the AIEG center will continue the implementation of UNESCO recommendations (with comparative studies to other related principles and policies) and provide feedbacks to governments, inter-governmental organizations and the general public. The AIEG center is calling every institute, industry, general public, governments and intergovernmental organizations to support the implementations of UNESCO AI Ethics recommendation, to build a better world for the future.