03/05/2024 – The 2024 OECD Council of Ministers Meeting (CMM) adopted revisions to this historic document OECD Principles on Artificial Intelligence (AI). In response to recent developments in AI technologies, including the emergence of general-purpose and generative AI, the updated principles more directly address the challenges associated with AI regarding privacy, property rights intellectual, security and integrity of information.
With 47 adherents, including the EU, and a broad scope ensuring applicability to AI developments around the world, the OECD AI Principles provide a blueprint for policy frameworks on how to manage risks related to AI and shaping AI policies. As the first intergovernmental standard on AI, they advocate for innovative and trustworthy AI that respects human rights and democratic values.
Tracking developments since the Principles were first adopted in 2019, the OECD AI Policy Observatory shows that venture capital investments in generative AI startups have increased nine-fold, demand for AI skills have soared 130% and the share of large companies using AI, on average across the OECD, has almost doubled to more than four times that of their smaller counterparts. These developments coincide with considerable attention and policy action, as evidenced by more than 1,000 AI initiatives in more than 70 countries and jurisdictions.
It is increasingly imperative to develop and deploy AI systems to boost productivity, accelerate scientific research, promote environmental sustainability, and improve healthcare and education while respecting human rights and democratic values. But risks to privacy, security, equity and well-being are growing at unprecedented speed and scale, transforming into real harms such as the perpetuation of bias and discrimination, the creation and dissemination of misinformation and the distortion of public discourse and markets.
Key elements of the OECD revisions, which ensure that the Principles remain relevant, robust and fit for purpose, include:
- Address security concerns, so that if AI systems are at risk of causing undue harm or exhibiting undesirable behavior, robust mechanisms and safeguards exist to safely defeat, repair and/or decommission them. security.
- Reflecting the growing importance of combating misinformation and safeguarding information integrity in the context of generative AI
- Focus on responsible business conduct throughout the AI system lifecycle, involving cooperation with AI knowledge and resource providers, AI system users and other stakeholders
- Clarifying information regarding AI systems that constitutes transparency and responsible disclosure
- Explicitly referring to environmental sustainability, a concern that has grown significantly in importance over the past five years
- Highlighting the need for jurisdictions to work together to promote interoperable governance and policy environments for AI, as the number of AI policy initiatives increases around the world.
“The OECD has helped shape digital policy agendas for decades, through evidence-based recommendations and extensive multilateral and multi-stakeholder cooperation. » Mathias Cormann, Secretary General of the OECD said. “The OECD AI Principles provide a global reference point for AI policymaking, facilitating global policy interoperability and promoting human-centered innovation. The revised OECD AI Principles will provide a model for global interoperability in AI policy and enable policymakers to keep pace with technology, addressing general-purpose AI and generative and their effects on our economies and societies.
The OECD Recommendation of the Council on Artificial Intelligence, which includes the OECD Principles on AI, contains definitions that support and encourage international interoperability; The Recommendation’s definitions of an AI system and its life cycle are used worldwide, including the European Union, Japan and the United States. The definitions also inform the work of the United Nations and the EU-US Trade and Technology Council.
For more information, journalists can contact Reemt Seibel at the OECD Media Office (+33 1 45 24 97 00).
Working with more than 100 countries, the OECD is a global policy forum that promotes policies to preserve individual freedom and improve the economic and social well-being of people around the world.
