UNESCO announced Thursday that it has adopted a first global text on the ethics of artificial intelligence (AI) to try to frame these technologies, which pose vast risks despite the many advances they enable.
"Artificial intelligence technologies can provide great services to humanity" and "all countries can benefit from them", but "they also raise underlying ethical concerns", underlines from its preamble the 28-page recommendation, ratified by the 193 member states.
There are "need to guarantee the transparency and intelligibility of the operation of the algorithms and the data from which they were obtained", as they can influence "human rights and fundamental freedoms, gender equality and democracy", says this international organization based in Paris.
Almost absent at the beginning of the millennium, AI has progressively been incorporated into everyday life: it selects the news on the cell phone, proposes movies, or selects the best options to move from one point to another based on traffic.
But the algorithms that allow it to work have also been misused in recent years, illustrating its dangers.
Facebook has been the center of many scandals.
British consultancy Cambridge Analytica was accused of diverting data from the American giant to influence politically the referendum that led to Brexit in the United Kingdom, and the election of Donald Trump in the United States.
More recently, Facebook has been accused of polarizing societies by disproportionately disseminating extremist or conspiratorial content.
As a result of work started in 2018, the UNESCO recommendation highlights values such as "respect, protection and promotion of human rights", "Diversity and inclusion", promotion of "peaceful societies" and the environment, which the Member States undertake to respect.
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