Global AI Ethics and Governance Observatory
Welcome to the Global AI Ethics and Governance Observatory
The aim of the Observatory is to provide a global resource for policymakers, regulators, academics, the private sector and civil society to find solutions to the most pressing challenges posed by Artificial Intelligence. The Observatory showcases information about the readiness of countries to adopt AI ethically and responsibly. It also hosts the AI Ethics and Governance Lab, which gathers contributions, impactful research, toolkits and good practices across a range of issues related to AI ethics, governance, responsible innovation, standards, institutional capacities, generative AI, and neurotechnologies.
UNESCO’s work on AI ethics and governance stems from the Recommendation on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence, which was adopted by 193 countries in 2021.
The Recommendation mandated UNESCO to produce tools to assist Member States, including the Readiness Assessment Methodology, a tool for governments to build a comprehensive picture of how prepared they are to implement AI ethically and responsibly for all their citizens.
Governments around the world have decisively moved on from the question of whether to regulate AI to the urgent question of how. The Observatory aims to start providing some of the answers for how to go about this complex but vital task.
Global Hub
The Hub contains Country Profiles capturing detailed and comprehensive snapshots of the sociotechnical landscape of AI across countries, drawing from both publicly available data and, for countries who have completed the Readiness Assessment Methodology (RAM), additional data and key insights resulting from this process.
You will also find Global Statistics corresponding to different dimensions of AI Readiness Assessment Methodology. These include annual reported AI incidents and controversies, global views about AI's impact on society, countries with national AI strategies, annual private investment in AI, and annual patent applications relating to AI.
