The Intergovernmental special committee of technical and legal experts meets in April and June 2021 to examine the draft text of the Recommendation on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence (AI).
At its 40th session in November 2019, UNESCO’s General Conference decided to develop an international standard-setting instrument on the ethics of AI, in the form of a recommendation. Since then, UNESCO has led a multidisciplinary, multicultural and pluralist effort to produce a preliminary report and a first draft of the Recommendation, shared with Member States in September 2020 for their comments. These written comments were taken into consideration by the Director-General when preparing her final report on the Recommendation, containing the draft of the Recommendation on the Ethics of AI.
The negotiated and approved text will be submitted to Member States for the adoption by the General Conference of UNESCO at its 41st session. If adopted, the Recommendation will be the first global normative instrument in this critically important field.
Bureau
The Bureau of the meeting, elected during the first session of the meeting, is composed as follows:
Chairperson
- H.E. Mr Adam Al Mulla (Group Vb, Kuwait)
Rapporteur
- Dr. Ms Immolatrix Linda Oneugbu (Group Va, Namibia)
Vice-Chairpersons:
- Mr Alberto Merchante (Group I, Spain)
- H.E. Ms Meta Bole (Group II, Slovenia)
- Dr. Mr José Cruz Pineda Castillo (Group III, Mexico)
- H.E. Mr Kazi Imtiaz Hossain (Group IV, Bangladesh)
First Session of the Intergovernmental Meeting (online)
26-30 April 2021, 13:00 – 17:00, GMT +2
The Intergovernmental special committee of technical and legal experts was convened online for its first session on 26-30 April 2021 to consider the draft of the Recommendation on the Ethics of AI.
Working Documents
- Provisional Agenda
also available in French, Arabic, Chinese, Russian, Spanish - Provisional Rules of Procedure
also available in French, Arabic, Chinese, Russian, Spanish - Election of the Chairperson, Vice-Chairpersons and Rapporteur
also available in French, Arabic, Chinese, Russian, Spanish - Draft text of the Recommendation on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence
also available in French, Arabic, Chinese, Russian, Spanish
Information Documents
- Final report on the draft text of the Recommendation on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence
also available in French, Arabic, Chinese, Russian, Spanish - Compilation of comments received from Member States on the first draft of the Recommendation (multilingual)
- Virtual Meeting Guide
also available in French - Provisional Timetable of Work
also available in French, Arabic, Chinese, Russian, Spanish
Other Documents
Intersessional Consultations (online)
1-11 June 2021, 13:00 – 16:00, GMT +2
Open-ended Intersessional Consultations will be held online on 1-11 June 2021 from 13:00 – 16:00, GMT+2 (5 and 6 June excluded), in line with the decision of the 40th Session of the General Conference (40 C/Resolution 37), requesting the Director-General to ensure a sufficient number of intergovernmental consultations.
Even though the intersessional consultations have no decision-making capacity, the draft text of the Recommendation as amended during the intersessional consultations will serve as the basis for the second session of the intergovernmental meeting (21-25 June 2021).
Working Document
- Intersessional Consultation Document (Preamble; 26-141)
Second Session of the Intergovernmental Meeting
21-25 June 2021
The second session of the Intergovernmental meeting will be held from 21 to 25 June 2021. More information will soon be available.
Information Document
- Preliminary Report of the Rapporteur
also available in French