UNESCO adopts Recommendation on the Ethics of AI

On 23 November 2021, the Recommendation on the Ethics of AI was adopted by UNESCO’s General Conference.

We appreciate its recommendations on sustainable, resource-conserving development of AI, on banning uses of mass surveillance, and the rights assigned to those affected by AI systems – language we are sorely missing in the EU Commission's draft AI Act.

“It is time for the governments to reassert their role to have good quality regulations, and incentivize the good use of AI and diminish the bad use", said Gabriela Ramos, UNESCO's Assistant Director-General for Social and Human Sciences.

Although the document is non-binding, it makes an important contribution to the debate on how we want to shape the framework for the use of AI systems. As the first global framework on AI, the recommendation is a step towards a human-centered governance on the use of these systems.

Read the text of the Recommendation here.