AI Weekly: UN recommendations point to need for AI ethics guidelines

The U.N.'s Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) this week approved a series of recommendations for AI ethics, which aim to recognize that AI can "be of great service" but also raise "fundamental … concerns." UNESCO's 193 member countries, including Russia and China, agreed to conduct AI impact assessments and place "strong enforcement mechanisms and remedial actions" to protect human rights. "The world needs rules for artificial intelligence to benefit humanity. The recommendation[s] on the ethics of AI is a major answer," UNESCO chief Audrey Azoulay said in a press release. "It sets the first global normative framework while giving States the responsibility to apply it at their level. UNESCO will support its … member states in its implementation and ask them to report regularly on their progress and practices."