UNESCO’s Recommendation on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence: Key Facts

This brochure is a summary of "Recommendation on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence". The Recommendation addresses ethical issues related to the domain of Artificial Intelligence to the extent that they are within UNESCO’s mandate. With its unique mandate, UNESCO’s Social and Human Sciences Sector has led the international effort to ensure that science and technology develop with strong ethical guardrails for decades. AI technology brings major benefits in many areas, but without the ethical guardrails, it risks reproducing real world biases and discrimination, fueling divisions and threatening fundamental human rights and freedoms. The Recommendation establishes a set of values in line with the promotion and protection of human rights, human dignity, and environmental sustainability. It advances essential principles such as transparency, accountability, and the rule of law online. It also includes concrete policy chapters that call for better governance of data, gender equality, and important aspects of AI applications on education, culture, labour markets, the environment, communication and information, health and social well-being, and the economy. Unlike other international instruments, the Recommendation includes monitoring and evaluation chapters and means for implementation in the form of a Readiness Assessment and the Ethical Impact Assessment to ensure real change on the ground.