How can standards ensure that AI develops in a way that is responsible, safe and trustworthy, whilst allowing us to fully reap the benefits it can offer?

These and many other issues are being discussed at this week's plenary of the IEC and ISO Joint Committee for AI, SC 42, held in Vienna, Austria.

Bringing together over 250 experts in the field of AI standardization from over 60 countries, the SC 42 plenary enables the continued advancement of more than 20 different projects across areas such as ethics, trustworthiness, functional safety, testing and regulation.

Austrian State Secretary for Digital Affairs, Florian Tursky kicked off the week-long meeting, highlighting the importance of international standards to Austria. His remarks were echoed by an address by the Managing Director of Austrian Standards, Valerie H?llinger.

"We are proud that Austria is hosting this event at such an important stage of AI standardization."

European Commission legal and policy officer Antoine-Alexandre Andre emphasized the importance of SC 42 work in informing standards at the EU level and to help operationalize the requirements of the upcoming European AI Act.

"We very much value SC 42 standardization activities and believe that what SC 42 has been producing so far can be used as a very good basis for standardization work done at the EU level," he said.

"We continue to collaborate and actively contribute to SC 42 work in the context of the EU AI Act."

Shawn Paulsen, IEC Vice President and Chair of the Conformity Assessment Board (CAB) outlined the importance of conformity assessment (CA) to realizing the true value of standards and announced the establishment of a task force on CA related to AI.

"We look forward to a collaborative future with SC 42 as we continue with AI and CA activities and efforts."

IEC President Jo Cops also addressed the delegates, highlighting the importance of SC 42 to the organization and to standardization in general.

"The IEC stands firmly behind SC 42. Thanks to SC 42 publications, we're steering AI toward a brighter, safer and more responsible future. In addition, conformity assessment can offer greater assurances that standards have been implemented correctly", he said.

In addition, the committee was congratulated by ISO President Ulrike Francke for winning the ISO LDE Award last month.

"Providing international standards to the world is the core of what we do", she said, "and every year a handful of committees who demonstrate exceptional management in delivering globally relevant international standards are nominated for the LDE Award".

Finally, the breadth and scope of the work of SC 42 was illustrated by Chair Wael William Diab, with an ever-expanding work programme.

"Many of our projects are key to enabling global responsible adoption of AI including the novel management systems standard which is expected to be published by the end of the year", he said.

"What's more, we continue to grow and expand as a committee, with contributions from a wide range of sectors and countries, a third of whom are from developing countries. Not to mention the liaison agreements with more than 60 organizations. As the global community continues to emphasize the need for standardization in AI, our portfolio is becoming more and more relevant."

SC 42 develops international standards for artificial intelligence. Its unique holistic approach considers the entire AI ecosystem, by looking at technology capability and non-technical requirements, such as business, regulatory and policy requirements, application domain needs, and ethical and societal concerns.

The committee organizes regular workshops on AI to discuss emerging trends, technology, requirements and applications as well as the role of standards. They bring together innovators at the frontier of AI development from diverse locations, sectors and backgrounds involved in research, deployment, standardization, startups, applications and oversight.

The fourth bi-annual ISO/IEC AI Workshop will be held in December and will cover four content tracks: AI applications, beneficial AI, novel AI standardization approaches and emerging AI technology trends and requirements.

(Source: IEC)