Seizing the opportunities of safe, secure and trustworthy artificial intelligence systems for sustainable development

• Authority: United Nations
• Jurisdiction: Multinational
• Collections: Editors' Picks
• Most recent activity: Enacted
• Most recent activity date: 2024-03-21

Risk subdomain coverage

Good coverage — Comprehensive governance measures or mitigations with clear procedures relating to the risk subdomain are explicitly described.

• Unfair discrimination and misrepresentation
• Compromise of privacy
• False or misleading information
• Power centralization and unfair distribution
• Increased inequality and decline in employment
• Governance failure
• Lack of transparency or interpretability

Minimal coverage — Brief mention but no specific mitigations, recommendations or governance measures relating to the risk subdomain are described.

• Unequal performance across groups
• AI system security vulnerabilities
• Pollution of information ecosystem
• Overreliance and unsafe use
• Loss of human agency and autonomy
• Economic and cultural devaluation of human effort
• Lack of capability or robustness

All other risk subdomains had no coverage in this document.

Risk Coverage Summary

The document has minimal to good coverage of approximately 10-12 subdomains, with primary focus on discrimination and bias (1.1, 1.3), privacy and data protection (2.1), misinformation (3.1, 3.2), governance frameworks (6.5), and AI system safety (7.3, 7.4). Coverage emphasizes human rights protection, equitable access, and sustainable development rather than technical security or malicious use risks.

Sector coverage

Good coverage — Comprehensive governance measures or mitigations with clear procedures relating to the sector are explicitly described.

• Public Administration (excl. National Security)

Minimal coverage — Brief mention but no specific mitigations, recommendations or governance measures relating to the sector are described.

• Information
• Scientific Research & Development Services
• Educational Services
• Arts, Entertainment & Recreation

All other sectors had no coverage in this document.

Sectors Summary

This is a cross-sectoral UN resolution that applies broadly to AI systems across all economic sectors. It does not regulate specific industries but rather establishes principles for AI governance applicable to all sectors, with particular emphasis on sustainable development, human rights protection, and bridging digital divides. The document governs AI use universally rather than targeting specific economic sectors.

Legislative Status

Soft Law

Legislative Status Summary

This is a UN General Assembly resolution that uses predominantly voluntary language ('encourages', 'calls upon', 'invites') and lacks binding enforcement mechanisms or legal penalties. It establishes principles and recommendations for AI governance rather than legally enforceable obligations.

Actors

Proposer

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Entities: United Nations General Assembly
• Summary: This is a UN General Assembly resolution, as indicated by the document structure and references to 'the General Assembly' and previous UN resolutions. The UN is the proposing body for this international governance framework.

Target

• Entity Types: AI_Developer, AI_Deployer, AI_Governance_Actor, AI_Infrastructure_Provider
• Entities: Member States; private sector; international and regional organizations; civil society; academia and research institutions; technical communities
• Summary: The resolution targets Member States as primary actors, along with multi-stakeholder groups including the private sector (AI developers/deployers), international organizations, civil society, academia, and technical communities throughout the AI lifecycle.

Enforcer

• Summary: No specific enforcement body or mechanism is designated in this resolution. The document relies on voluntary adherence by Member States and stakeholders rather than establishing enforcement authorities.

Monitor

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Entities: specialized agencies, funds, programmes, other entities, bodies and offices, and related organizations of the United Nations system
• Summary: The resolution calls upon UN system entities to monitor and assess progress, conduct research and analysis, and report on challenges in addressing AI issues, though this is within their existing mandates rather than creating new monitoring bodies.

AI Lifecycle Stages

Lifecycle stages covered by the documents, as defined in the OECD Framework for the Classification of AI Systems

• Plan and Design
• Collect and Process Data
• Build and Use Model
• Verify and Validate
• Deploy
• Operate and Monitor

AI Lifecycle Summary

The document explicitly addresses all stages of the AI lifecycle, with repeated emphasis on governance 'throughout the life cycle of artificial intelligence systems.' It covers planning and design, data governance, model development, verification and validation, deployment, and operational monitoring with comprehensive detail across all stages.

Technical Scope

Terms relating to technical scope that are mentioned or implicitly referenced in the document

• AI Systems
• Open Weight / Open Source

Technical Scope Summary

The document extensively uses the term 'artificial intelligence systems' throughout but does not provide technical definitions or distinguish between different types of AI (frontier, general purpose, task-specific, foundation models, generative vs predictive). It does not mention compute thresholds or open-weight models. The focus is on AI systems broadly defined for sustainable development purposes.