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Slovenia to host International Research Centre on Artificial Intelligence under the auspices of UNESCO

Even as there is a broad consensus that Artificial Intelligence (AI) is being used to transform different spheres of human activity, we remain in a state of flux when it comes to understanding the influence of this transformation on individuals and societies. At the 40th session of the General Conference, UNESCO Member States discussed this disruptive potential of AI, including in the fields of education, sciences, culture, communication.

Underlining the importance of research to address the challenges of sustainable development, UNESCO’s Member States approved the establishment of the International Research Centre on Artificial Intelligence (IRCAI), as a Category 2 centre under the auspices of UNESCO at the Jožef Stefan Institute (JSI), Ljubljana, Slovenia and congratulated the Republic of Slovenia for its forward-looking initiative.

The Centre would add a unique focus and expertise on AI to UNESCO’s programmes, especially to leverage the power of AI for SDGs. IRCAI would assist UNESCO to generate relevant statistics on AI, AI-related applications and associated technological innovations and would work on legal, ethical and social implications of AI, through both awareness raising and capacity building efforts in the global North and South.

The Centre would organize several multistakeholder consultations to set an agenda for an inclusive, human centered and human rights based programme of activities in early 2020.

Latest on AI: UNESCO’s publication “Steering AI and Advanced ICTs for Knowledge Societies” was launched at the 2019 Internet Governance Forum in Berlin.

Information about UNESCO’s work on human centered AI is available at https://en.unesco.org/artificial-intelligence.

For more information, please contact Bhanu Neupane (b.neupane@unesco.org) or Prateek Sibal (p.sibal@unesco.org)