OECD AI Principles

The OECD Council adopted its Recommendation on Artificial Intelligence in May 2019. Member countries and several non-members adhered to it, and in June 2019 the G20 adopted AI principles drawn from it, extending its reach to major economies outside the OECD. The five values-based principles for trustworthy AI are: inclusive growth, sustainable development and well-being; respect for the rule of law, human rights and democratic values, including fairness and privacy; transparency and explainability; robustness, security and safety; and accountability. Alongside them are five recommendations for policymakers: invest in AI research and development; foster an inclusive AI-enabling ecosystem; enable an interoperable governance and policy environment; build human capacity and prepare for labour market transition; and cooperate internationally. The OECD revised its definition of an AI system in November 2023. It now describes a machine-based system that, for explicit or implicit objectives, infers from its input how to generate outputs such as predictions, content, recommendations or decisions that can influence physical or virtual environments, noting that systems vary in autonomy and adaptiveness. The EU AI Act's definition closely follows this wording, which helps companies and regulators speak a common language. In May 2024 the principles themselves were updated to address general-purpose and generative AI. Changes included stronger attention to misinformation and disinformation, safety, including the ability to override or safely decommission systems that behave in unwanted ways, environmental sustainability, and interoperability between governance regimes. The OECD supports the principles with the OECD.AI Policy Observatory, launched in 2020, which tracks national policies and data, and with work such as incident monitoring. A common misconception is that the principles impose obligations on companies. They are a government-level recommendation; their influence comes through national laws, standards and procurement that adopt them.