Around 150 delegates from 50 participating countries took part in the recent plenary meeting of the ISO and IEC joint committee on artificial intelligence (ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 42). At the meeting, delegates heard from the European Commission (EC) and approved a number of resolutions.
The keynote speaker was Salvatore Scalzo, an EC Policy and Legal Officer in the field of AI. He works in the DirectorateGeneral for Communications Networks, Content and Technology, which develops and implements digital policies for Europe.
Mr. Scalzo said that the EC was taking a strong interest in ISO/IEC AI standards as work continued on a future AI act. The proposed European law will set out rules on fundamental rights and safety risks specific to AI systems within the EU.
Resolutions approved during the meeting included establishing a formal liaison with UNESCO and a new ISO/IEC Technical Report (TR) on the sustainability of AI. The strengthening of ties with UNESCO reflects a growing working relationship between SC 42 and the UN's education, technology and science organization.
The Chair of the ISO/IEC AI committee, Wael William Diab, has contributed to UNESCO work on the implementation of a global ethical framework aimed at ensuring the equitable and safe development of AI technologies. UNESCO Assistant Director-General for Social and Human Sciences, Gabriela Ramos, was a keynote speaker at an SC 42 meeting earlier this year.
The Technical Report will benefit from the input of SC 42's sister committee SC 39 (Sustainability, IT & Data Centres). IEC and ISO technical committees will be invited to contribute.
The publication will look at the environmental sustainability aspects of AI Systems during their life cycle, as well as related potential metrics. Topics covered will include resource and asset utilization, carbon impact, pollution, waste, and transport, among others.
"The project will set the stage for AI sustainability," explained Mr. Diab. "This will also benefit IEC/ISO committees, SDOs and OS communities working on AI in application domains."
During the meeting, Mr. Diab announced plans for a second SC 42 virtual workshop, which will take place at the end of November. It follows a highly successful online event earlier this year that explored the AI ecosystem from a diverse and broad set of perspectives.
"Whether you're an AI expert, you're learning about AI, or you're casually interested, everyone's welcome to join," said Mr. Diab.
"And really, our mission is two things: one is to help inform about the work that we're doing, and two to is to help understand current trends around the world and how standards can help to support innovation."
The standardization work carried out in SC 42 addresses the entire AI ecosystem by looking at technology capability and non-technical requirements, such as business and regulatory and policy requirements, application domain needs, and ethical and societal concerns.
