Seizing the Opportunities of Safe, Secure and Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence Systems for Sustainable Development

A/RES/78/265View PDF

Who created this mandate?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, under agenda item 13Integrated and coordinated implementation of and follow-up to the outcomes of the major United Nations conferences and summits in the economic, social and related fields, published in 2023.

Who cites this mandate in the budget?

3 entities

A dot marks an entity citing this document in its “Mandates and background” narrative rather than only its Legislative mandates list. Many do both.

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What subjects does this mandate have?

5 topics

Artificial Intelligence Digital Divide Digital Technology Sustainable Development Technology Transfer

What does this mandate say?

37 operative paragraphs

Resolves to bridge the artificial intelligence and other digital divides between and within countries;

Resolves to promote safe, secure and trustworthy artificial intelligence systems to accelerate progress towards the full realization of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, further bridging the artificial intelligence and other digital divides between and within countries; and stresses the need for the standard of safe, secure and trustworthy artificial intelligence systems to promote, not hinder, digital transformation and equitable access to their benefits in order to achieve all 17 Sustainable Development Goals and sustainable development in its three dimensions – economic, social and environmental – and address other shared global challenges, particularly for developing countries;

Encourages Member States and invites multi-stakeholders from all regions and countries, within their respective roles and responsibilities, including from the private sector, international and regional organizations, civil society, the media, academia and research institutions and technical communities and individuals, to develop and support regulatory and governance approaches and frameworks related to safe, secure and trustworthy artificial intelligence systems that create an enabling ecosystem at all levels, including for innovation, entrepreneurship and the dissemination of knowledge and technologies on mutually agreed terms, recognizing that effective partnership and cooperation between Governments and multi-stakeholders is necessary in developing such approaches and frameworks;

Calls upon Member States and invites other stakeholders to take action to cooperate with and provide assistance to developing countries towards inclusive and equitable access to the benefits of digital transformation and safe, secure and trustworthy artificial intelligence systems, including by:

Expanding participation of all countries, in particular developing countries, in digital transformation to harness the benefits and effectively participate in the development, deployment and use of safe, secure and trustworthy artificial intelligence systems, including by capacity building relating to artificial intelligence systems, recognizing that promoting knowledge sharing activities and the transfer of technology on mutually agreed terms is an important aspect of building capacity, stressing the need to close the artificial intelligence and other digital divides; and increase digital literacy;

Enhancing digital infrastructure connectivity and access to technological innovations through stronger partnerships to help developing countries effectively participate throughout the life cycle of artificial intelligence systems and accelerate the inclusive and positive contribution of artificial intelligence systems to society, including towards the full realization of the 2030 Agenda and its Sustainable Development Goals, while ensuring that artificial intelligence systems around the world are safe, secure and trustworthy throughout their life cycle;

Enhancing the ability of developing countries, in particular the least developed countries, to address major structural impediments and lift obstacles to accessing the benefits of new and emerging technologies and artificial intelligence innovation to achieve all 17 Sustainable Development Goals, including through scaling up the use of scientific sources, affordable technology, research and development, including through strengthened partnerships;

Aiming to increase funding for Sustainable Development Goals related research and innovation related to digital technologies and safe, secure and trustworthy artificial intelligence systems and build capacity in all regions and countries to contribute to and benefit from this research;

Enabling international innovation-based environments to enhance the ability of developing countries to develop technical expertise and capacities, harness data and compute resources, and national regulatory and governance approaches, frameworks and procurement capacity, and create an inclusive enabling environment at all levels for safe, secure and trustworthy artificial intelligence systems-based solutions;

Urgently mobilizing means of implementation such as technology transfer on mutually agreed terms, capacity building to close the artificial intelligence and other digital divides, technical assistance and financing to developing countries related to artificial intelligence systems in accordance with developing countries’ national needs, policies and priorities;

Promoting the access to and design, development, deployment and use of safe, secure and trustworthy artificial intelligence systems to achieve sustainable development in its three dimensions – economic, social and environmental;

Emphasizes that human rights and fundamental freedoms must be respected, protected and promoted throughout the life cycle of artificial intelligence systems, calls upon all Member States and, where applicable, other stakeholders to refrain from or cease the use of artificial intelligence systems that are impossible to operate in compliance with international human rights law or that pose undue risks to the enjoyment of human rights, especially of those who are in vulnerable situations, and reaffirms that the same rights that people have offline must also be protected online, including throughout the life cycle of artificial intelligence systems;

Encourages all Member States, where appropriate, in line with their national priorities and circumstances and while implementing their distinct national regulatory and governance approaches and frameworks, and, where applicable, other stakeholders to promote safe, secure and trustworthy artificial intelligence systems in an inclusive and equitable manner, and for the benefit of all, and foster an enabling environment for such systems to address the world’s greatest challenges, including achieving sustainable development in its three dimensions – economic, social and environmental – with specific consideration of developing countries and leaving no one behind by:

Promoting the development and implementation of domestic regulatory and governance approaches and frameworks, in line with their respective national, and where applicable subnational, policies and priorities and obligations under international law, to support responsible and inclusive artificial intelligence innovation and investment for sustainable development, while simultaneously promoting safe, secure and trustworthy artificial intelligence systems;

Encouraging effective measures, that promote innovation for the internationally interoperable identification, classification, evaluation, testing, prevention and mitigation of vulnerabilities and risks during the design and development and prior to the deployment and use of artificial intelligence systems;

Encouraging the incorporation of feedback mechanisms to allow evidence-based discovery and reporting by end-users and third parties of technical vulnerabilities and, as appropriate, misuses of artificial intelligence systems and artificial intelligence incidents following their development, testing and deployment to address them;

Raising public awareness and understanding of the core functions, capabilities, limitations and domains of appropriate civil use of artificial intelligence systems;

Fostering the development, implementation and disclosure of mechanisms of risk monitoring and management, mechanisms for securing data, including personal data protection and privacy policies, as well as impact assessments as appropriate, across the life cycle of artificial intelligence systems;

Strengthening investment in developing and implementing effective safeguards, including physical security, artificial intelligence systems security, and risk management across the life cycle of artificial intelligence systems;

Encouraging the development and deployment of effective, accessible, adaptable, internationally interoperable technical tools, standards or practices, including reliable content authentication and provenance mechanisms – such as watermarking or labelling, where technically feasible and appropriate, that enable users to identify information manipulation, distinguish or determine the origins of authentic digital content and artificial intelligence-generated or manipulated digital content – and increasing media and information literacy;

Facilitating the development and implementation of effective, internationally interoperable frameworks, practices and standards for training and testing artificial intelligence systems to enhance policymaking and to help protect individuals from all forms of discrimination, bias, misuse or other harm, and avoid reinforcing or perpetuating discriminatory or biased applications and outcomes throughout the life cycle of artificial intelligence systems, including, for example, by analysing and mitigating bias encoded in datasets and otherwise combating algorithmic discrimination and bias, while not inadvertently or disproportionally impacting the positive development, access and uses of other users and beneficiaries;

Encouraging, where appropriate and relevant, the implementation of appropriate safeguards to respect intellectual property rights, including copyright-protected content, while promoting innovation;

Safeguarding privacy and the protection of personal data when testing and evaluating systems, and for transparency and reporting requirements in compliance with applicable international, national and subnational legal frameworks, including on the use of personal data throughout the life cycle of artificial intelligence systems;

Promoting transparency, predictability, reliability and understandability throughout the life cycle of artificial intelligence systems that make or support decisions impacting end-users, including providing notice and explanation, and promoting human oversight, such as, for example, through review of automated decisions and related processes or, where appropriate and relevant, human decision-making alternatives or effective redress and accountability for those adversely impacted by automated decisions of artificial intelligence systems;

Strengthening investment in developing and implementing effective safeguards, including risk and impact assessments, throughout the life cycle of artificial intelligence systems to protect the exercise of and mitigate against the potential impact on the full and effective enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms;

Promoting artificial intelligence systems that advance, protect and preserve linguistic and cultural diversity, taking into account multilingualism in their training data and throughout the life cycle of the artificial intelligence system, particularly for the large language models;

Intensifying information-sharing on mutually agreed terms among entities with roles across the life cycle of artificial intelligence systems to identify, understand and act using scientific and evidence-based best practices, policies and approaches to artificial intelligence systems to maximize the benefits while mitigating the potential risks across the life cycle of artificial intelligence systems, including advanced artificial intelligence systems;

Encouraging research and international cooperation to understand, balance and address the potential benefits and risks related to the role of artificial intelligence systems in bridging digital divides and achieving all 17 Sustainable Development Goals, including the role of scaling up of digital solutions such as open-source artificial intelligence systems;

Calling upon Member States to adopt specific measures to close the gender digital divide and to ensure that particular attention is paid to access, affordability, digital literacy, privacy and online safety, to enhance the use of digital technologies, including artificial intelligence systems, and to mainstream a disability, gender and racial equality perspective in policy decisions and the frameworks that guide them;

Encouraging research and international cooperation to develop measures for the identification and assessment of the impacts of the deployment of artificial intelligence systems on labour markets, and providing support for the mitigation of potential negative consequences for workforces, especially in developing countries, in particular the least developed countries, and fostering programmes aimed at digital training, capacity building, supporting innovation and enhancing access to benefits of artificial intelligence systems;

Recognizes also that data is fundamental to the development and operation of artificial intelligence systems; emphasizes that the fair, inclusive, responsible and effective data governance, improving data generation, accessibility and infrastructure, and the use of digital public goods are essential to harnessing the potential of safe, secure and trustworthy artificial intelligence systems for sustainable development, and urges Member States to share best practices on data governance and to promote international cooperation, collaboration and assistance on data governance for greater consistency and interoperability, where feasible, of approaches for advancing trusted cross-border data flows for safe, secure and trustworthy artificial intelligence systems, and make its development more inclusive, equitable, effective and beneficial to all;

Acknowledges the importance of continuing the discussion on developments in the area of artificial intelligence governance so that international approaches keep pace with the evolution of artificial intelligence systems and their uses; and encourages continued efforts by the international community to promote inclusive research, mapping and analysis that benefit all parties on the potential impacts and applications that artificial intelligence systems and rapid technological change can have in the development of existing and new and emerging technologies and on accelerating the achievement of all 17 Sustainable Development Goals, and to inform how to develop, promote and implement effective, internationally interoperable safeguards, practices, standards and tools for artificial intelligence designers, developers, evaluators, deployers, users and other stakeholders for safe, secure and trustworthy artificial intelligence systems; as well as stresses the need for Governments, the private sector, civil society, international and regional organizations, academia and research institutions and technical communities and all other stakeholders to continue to work together, as appropriate; as well as acknowledges the need for more cohesive, effective, coordinated and inclusive engagement and participation of all communities, particularly from developing countries, in the inclusive governance of safe, secure and trustworthy artificial intelligence systems;

Encourages the private sector to adhere to applicable international and domestic laws and act in line with the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights: Implementing the United Nations “Protect, Respect and Remedy” Framework; acknowledges the importance of more inclusive and equitable access to the benefits of safe, secure and trustworthy artificial intelligence systems; and recognizes the need for increased collaboration, including between and within the public and private sectors and civil society, academia and research institutions and technical communities, to provide and promote fair, open, inclusive and non-discriminatory business environment, economic and commercial activities, competitive ecosystems and marketplaces across the life cycle of safe, secure and trustworthy artificial intelligence; as well as encourages Member States to develop policies and regulations to promote competition in safe, secure and trustworthy artificial intelligence systems and related technologies, including by supporting and enabling new opportunities for small businesses and entrepreneurs and technical talent, and enabling fair competition in the artificial intelligence marketplace, through critical investment, especially for developing countries;

Calls upon specialized agencies, funds, programmes, other entities, bodies and offices, and related organizations of the United Nations system, within their respective mandates and resources, to continue to assess and enhance their response to leverage the opportunities and address the challenges posed by artificial intelligence systems in a collaborative, coordinated and inclusive manner, through appropriate inter-agency mechanisms, including by conducting research, mapping and analysis that benefit all parties on the potential impacts and applications; reporting on progress and challenges in addressing issues; and cooperating with and assisting developing countries in capacity building, access and sharing the benefits of safe, secure and trustworthy artificial intelligence systems in achieving all 17 Sustainable Development Goals and sustainable development in its three dimensions – economic, social and environmental; stressing the need to close artificial intelligence and other digital divides between and within countries;

Recalls its resolution 76/307 of 8 September 2022 and its decision 77/568 of 1 September 2023 on the modalities and the scope of the Summit of the Future and, in this regard, looks forward to the development of a global digital compact;

Looks forward also to the overall review by the General Assembly, in 2025, of the progress made since the World Summit on the Information Society;

Acknowledges that the United Nations system, consistent with its mandate, uniquely contributes to reaching global consensus on safe, secure and trustworthy artificial intelligence systems, that is consistent with international law, in particular the Charter of the United Nations; the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, including by promoting inclusive international cooperation and facilitating the inclusion, participation and representation of developing countries in deliberations.

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