Policy paper

Seoul Declaration for safe, innovative and inclusive AI by participants attending the Leaders' Session: AI Seoul Summit, 21 May 2024

Published 21 May 2024

This was published under the 2022 to 2024 Sunak Conservative government

1. We, world leaders representing Australia, Canada, the European Union, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Republic of Korea, the Republic of Singapore, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America, gathered at the AI Seoul Summit on 21st May 2024, affirm our common dedication to fostering international cooperation and dialogue on artificial intelligence (AI) in the face of its unprecedented advancements and the impact on our economies and societies.

2. Building on the work laid out at the AI Safety Summit held at Bletchley Park in the United Kingdom in November 2023, we recognize that AI safety, innovation, and inclusivity are inter-related goals and that it is important to encompass these priorities in international discussions on AI governance to address the broad spectrum of opportunities and challenges that the design, development, deployment, and use of AI presents and may present.

3. We recognise the importance of interoperability between AI governance frameworks in line with a risk-based approach to maximize the benefits and address the broad range of risks from AI, to ensure the safe, secure, and trustworthy design, development, deployment, and use of AI. We continue to focus on supporting the operationalisation of the Hiroshima Process International Code of Conduct for Organizations Developing Advanced AI Systems. We recognize the particular responsibility of organizations developing and deploying frontier AI, and, in this regard, note the Frontier AI Safety Commitments.

4. We support existing and ongoing efforts of the participants to this Declaration to create or expand AI safety institutes, research programmes and/or other relevant institutions including supervisory bodies, and we strive to promote cooperation on safety research and to share best practices by nurturing networks between these organizations. In this regard, we welcome the Seoul Statement of Intent toward International Cooperation on AI Safety Science, which is annexed to this Declaration.

5. We call for enhanced international cooperation to advance AI safety, innovation and inclusivity to harness human-centric AI to address the world’s greatest challenges, to protect and promote democratic values, the rule of law and human rights, fundamental freedoms and privacy, to bridge AI and digital divides between and within countries, thereby contributing to the advancement of human well-being, and to support practical applications of AI including to advance the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

6. We advocate for policy and governance frameworks, including risk-based approaches, that foster safe, innovative and inclusive AI ecosystems. Frameworks should facilitate a virtuous cycle between human creativity and the development and use of AI, promote socio-cultural, linguistic, and gender diversity, and promote environmentally sustainable development and use of technology and infrastructure throughout the life-cycle of commercially and publicly available AI systems.

7. We affirm the importance of active multi-stakeholder collaboration, including governments, the private sector, academia, and civil society to cultivate safe, innovative and inclusive AI ecosystems, and the importance of cross-border and cross-disciplinary collaboration. Recognizing that all states will be affected by the benefits and risks of AI, we will actively include a wide range of international stakeholders in conversations around AI governance.

8. We aim to strengthen international cooperation on AI governance through engagement with other international initiatives at the UN and its bodies, G7, G20, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the Council of Europe, and the Global Partnership on AI (GPAI). In this light, we acknowledge the Hiroshima AI Process Friends Group, welcome the recently updated OECD AI principles, and the recent adoption by consensus of the United Nations General Assembly resolution “Seizing the opportunities of safe, secure and trustworthy artificial intelligence systems for sustainable development” that solidified the global understanding on the need for safeguards for AI systems and the imperative to develop, deploy, and use AI for good, and welcome discussions on the Global Digital Compact in advance of the Summit of the Future in September 2024 and look forward to the final report of the UN Secretary-General’s High-level Advisory Body on AI (HLAB).

9. Acknowledging the value of AI Summit dialogues as a high-level forum to advance discussion on AI governance which facilitates AI safety, innovation and inclusivity, we look forward to our third gathering at the upcoming AI Action Summit to be held in France.