On 17 June 2020, the National New Generation Artificial Intelligence Governance Committee (under the National New Generation AI Promotion Office) released the New Generation AI Governance Principles – Developing Responsible AI. The Governance Principles were agreed on and issued after several rounds of public consultations and experts discussion; their purpose is to coordinate more effectively the relationship between AI development and governance, thus ensuring the reliability and safety of AI while promoting economic, social and ecological sustainable development.
The document lists a total of eight governance principles:
- Harmony and friendship: AI must be in line with mankind’s values and ethics and must be subordinate to human development; misuses must be avoided and abuses must be prohibited.
- Fairness and justice: AI must protect the interests of all relevant stakeholders, and must promote equal opportunities. Prejudices and discrimination must be eliminated in data acquisition, algorithm design, and technology/product development and application.
- Inclusive and sharing: AI must promote green development and must contribute to technological upgrading in all industries. AI education must be strengthened especially amongst disadvantaged circles. Data and platform monopolies must be avoided, and open and regulation cooperation encouraged.
- Respect for privacy: personal information should be protected and privacy norms established in all segments of AI development, e.g. collection, storage, processing and use. Authorisation revocation mechanisms for personal data will be improved.
- Safety and controllability: AI development should be transparent and controllable. Supervision, management, tracking and monitoring systems gradually be achieved.
- Shared responsibility: AI developers, users and all other relevant stakeholder will have shared responsibility to ensure the respect of laws, ethics and norms. An accountability system for AI will be established to clarify the responsibility of each actor.
- Open collaboration: interdisciplinary, cross-field, cross-regional and cross-border exchanges and cooperation will be encouraged, and coordination and interactions in the development and governance of AI will be promoted amongst international organisations, government departments, research institutions, education institutions, enterprises, social organisations and the general public. The formulation of a widely-agreed international AI governance framework and standards will be promoted, on the premises that principles and practices of AI governance in all countries are fully respected.
- Agile governance: management mechanisms and governance systems will be constantly upgraded and improved throughout the whole life cycles of AI products and services. Further research and prediction of potential risks of more advanced AI will be done in the future to ensure that AI will always develop in a human-friendly direction.
This is the first official document of its kind to be issued in China on AI governance ethics.
External link:
http://most.gov.cn/kjbgz/201906/t20190617_147107.htm
See also:
State Council’s Plan for the Development of New Generation Artificial Intelligence (Guo Fa [2017] No. 35)
Implementation Measures for Accelerating the High-Quality Development of Artificial Intelligence in Shanghai (Hu Jing Xin Ji [2018] No. 569)
Establishment of the Beijing New Generation AI Development National Experimental Zone