Sunday, 12 September 2021

OECD Artificial Intelligence (AI) Principles for responsible stewardship of trustworthy AI

 The Recommendation on Artificial Intelligence (AI) is held out as the first intergovernmental standard on AI. The Recommendation was adopted by the OECD Council at Ministerial level on 22 May 2019 on the proposal of the Committee on Digital Economy Policy.

The recommendations are the outcome of OECD research and discussions carried out over a period of 3 years. OECD found that their work had demonstrated a need to shape a policy environment at the international level to ‘foster trust in and adoption of AI in society.’ The recommendations on AI complement existing OECD standards on privacy and data protection, digital security risk management, and responsible business conduct.

The Recommendation on AI contains five high-level values-based principles and five recommendations for national policies and international co-operation. It also proposes a common understanding of key terms, such as “AI system” and “AI actors”, for the purposes of the Recommendation. The following terms have been defined as shown below.

·         AI system: An AI system is a machine-based system that can, for a given set of human-defined objectives, make predictions, recommendations, or decisions influencing real or virtual environments. AI systems are designed to operate with varying levels of autonomy.

·         AI system lifecycle: AI system lifecycle phases involve:

i) ‘design, data and models’; which is a context-dependent sequence encompassing planning and design, data collection and processing, as well as model building;

ii) ‘verification and validation’;

iii) ‘deployment’; and

iv) ‘operation and monitoring’. These phases often take place in an iterative manner and are not necessarily sequential. The decision to retire an AI system from operation may occur at any point during the operation and monitoring phase.

·         AI knowledge: AI knowledge refers to the skills and resources, such as data, code, algorithms, models, research, know-how, training programmes, governance, processes and best practices, required to understand and participate in the AI system lifecycle.

·         AI actors: AI actors are those who play an active role in the AI system lifecycle, including organisations and individuals that deploy or operate AI.

·         Stakeholders: Stakeholders encompass all organisations and individuals involved in, or affected by, AI systems, directly or indirectly. AI actors are a subset of stakeholders.

Five high-level values-based principles

1.       Inclusive growth, sustainable development and well-being

a.       Stakeholders should proactively engage in responsible stewardship of trustworthy AI in pursuit of beneficial outcomes for people and the planet, such as augmenting human capabilities and enhancing creativity, advancing inclusion of underrepresented populations, reducing economic, social, gender and other inequalities, and protecting natural environments, thus invigorating inclusive growth, sustainable development and well-being.

2.       Human-centered values and fairness

a.       AI actors should respect the rule of law, human rights and democratic values, throughout the AI system lifecycle. These include freedom, dignity and autonomy, privacy and data protection, non-discrimination and equality, diversity, fairness, social justice, and internationally recognized labor rights.

b.      To this end, AI actors should implement mechanisms and safeguards, such as capacity for human determination, that are appropriate to the context and consistent with the state of art.

3.       Transparency and explainability

a.       AI Actors should commit to transparency and responsible disclosure regarding AI systems. To this end, they should provide meaningful information, appropriate to the context, and consistent with the state of art:

                                                               i.      to foster a general understanding of AI systems;

                                                             ii.      to make stakeholders aware of their interactions with AI systems, including in the workplace;

                                                            iii.      to enable those affected by an AI system to understand the outcome; and

                                                           iv.      to enable those adversely affected by an AI system to challenge its outcome based on plain and easy-to-understand information on the factors, and the logic that served as the basis for the prediction, recommendation or decision.

4.       Robustness, security and safety

a.       AI systems should be robust, secure and safe throughout their entire lifecycle so that, in conditions of normal use, foreseeable use or misuse, or other adverse conditions, they function appropriately and do not pose unreasonable safety risk.

b.      To this end, AI actors should ensure traceability, including in relation to datasets, processes and decisions made during the AI system lifecycle, to enable analysis of the AI system’s outcomes and responses to inquiry, appropriate to the context and consistent with the state of art.

c.       AI actors should, based on their roles, the context, and their ability to act, apply a systematic risk management approach to each phase of the AI system lifecycle on a continuous basis to address risks related to AI systems, including privacy, digital security, safety and bias.

5.       Accountability

AI actors should be accountable for the proper functioning of AI systems and for the respect of the above principles, based on their roles, the context, and consistent with the state of art.

Five Recommendations for Policy Makers

6.  Investing in AI research  and development

a)  Governments  should  consider  long-term  public  investment,  and  encourage  private  investment,  in research  and  development,  including  interdisciplinary  efforts,  to  spur  innovation  in  trustworthy  AI  that focus on  challenging  technical  issues  and  on AI issues. AI  research related  social, legal  and  ethical  implications  and  policy

b)  Governments  should  also  consider  public  investment  and  encourage  private  investment  in  open datasets  that  are representative and  respect privacy and  data  protection  to support an environment for and  development  that  is  free  of  inappropriate  bias  and  to  improve  interoperability  and  use of  standards.

7. Fostering a digital ecosystem for AI

Governments should foster the development of, and access to, a digital ecosystem for trustworthy AI. Such an ecosystem includes in particular digital technologies and infrastructure, and mechanisms for sharing AI knowledge, as appropriate. In this regard, governments should consider promoting mechanisms, such as data trusts, to support the safe, fair, legal and ethical sharing of data.

8.  Shaping an enabling policy environment for AI

 a)  Governments should promote a policy environment that tested, and scaled up, as appropriate. supports  an  agile  transition  from  the  research and  development  stage  to  the  deployment  and  operation  stage  for  trustworthy  AI  systems.  To  this  effect, they  should  consider  using  experimentation  to  provide  a  controlled  environment  in  which  AI  systems can  be tested, and scaled-up, as appropriate

b)  Governments  should  review  and  adapt,  as  appropriate,  their  policy  and  regulatory  frameworks  and assessment  mechanisms  as  they  apply  to  AI  systems  to  encourage  innovation  and  competition  for trustworthy  AI.

9.  Building human capacity and preparing for labour market transformation

a)  Governments  should work  closely  with  stakeholders  to  prepare  for  the  transformation of  the  world of work  and  of  society.  They  should  empower  people  to  effectively  use  and  interact  with  AI  systems  across the  breadth of  applications,  including  by  equipping  them  with  the necessary  skills.

b)  Governments  should  take  step c s,  including  through  social  dialogue,  to  ensure  a  fair  transition  for workers  as  AI  is  deployed,  such  as  through  training  programmes  along  the  working  life,  support  for those affected  by  displacement, and  access  to  new  opportunities  in the  labour  market.

c)  Governments  should  also  work  closely  with  stakeholders  to  promote  the  responsible  use  of  AI  at work,  to  enhance  the  safety  of  workers  and  the  quality  of  jobs,  to  foster  entrepreneurship  and productivity, and  aim  to  ensure that the benefits  of  AI  are broadly  and fairly  shared.

10. International cooperation for trustworthy AI

a)  Governments,  including  developing  countries  and  with  stakeholders should actively cooperate to advance these  principles  and  to  progress  on responsible stewardship  of  trustworthy  AI.

b)  Governments  should  work  together  in  the  OECD  and  other  global  and  regional  fora  to  foster  the sharing  of  AI  knowledge,  as  appropriate.  They should encourage international, cross-sectoral and open multi-stakeholder initiatives to garner long-term expertise on AI.

c)  Governments should promote the development of multi-stakeholder, consensus-driven technical standards for interoperable and trustworthy AI.

d)  Governments  should  also  encourage  the  development,  and  their  own  use,  of  internationally comparable  metrics  to  measure  AI  research,  development  and  deployment,  and  gather  the  evidence base to  assess  progress  in  the  implementation  of  these principles

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