UNESCO is among the 10 winners recognized for its efforts in elaborating a global Recommendation on the Ethics of AI. UNESCO received the award during a webinar on "The 10 best artificial intelligence initiatives with social and ethical impact" organized on 2 December 2020.
We are thrilled to be recognized as one of the most impactful initiatives on artificial intelligence in contributing to social and ethical outcomes! UNESCO is bringing ethics to the forefront as a global standard for the development of Artificial Intelligence technologies to ensure that national regulation will prioritise ethics. We need technologies that contribute to the positive aspects of humanity while controlling the risks.
Gabriela Ramos, UNESCO Assistant Director-General for Social and Human Sciences
UNESCO, as a global laboratory of ideas is playing a leading role in facilitating international cooperation and shaping the future of AI, and has taken up the challenge, mandated by its Member States, to develop the first global normative instrument in the form of a Recommendation on the ethics of AI. This normative instrument translates the what of AI ethics into the how of relevant policy action, offering concrete ways for the realization of the ethical framework of universal principles and values.
Today, artificial intelligence plays a role in billions of people's lives. This has been exacerbated with the spread of the pandemic. Sometimes unnoticed but often with profound consequences, it transforms our societies and challenges what it means to be human. Along with multiple advantages, these technologies also generate downside risks and challenges, derived from malicious use of technology or deepening inequalities and divides.
The Recommendation pays particular attention to the wider ethical implications of AI systems in relation to UNESCO's core areas of education, science, culture and communication and information.
