AI4People—An Ethical Framework for a Good AI Society: Opportunities, Risks, Principles, and Recommendations

AI is not another utility that needs to be regulated once it is mature. It is a powerful force, a new form of smart agency, which is already reshaping our lives, our interactions, and our environments. AI4People was set up to help steer this powerful force towards the good of society, everyone in it, and the environments we share. This article is the outcome of the collaborative effort by the AI4People Scientific Committee—comprising 12 experts and chaired by Luciano Floridi—to propose a series of recommendations for the development of a Good AI Society.

The article synthesises three things: the opportunities and associated risks that AI technologies offer for fostering human dignity and promoting human flourishing; the principles that should undergird the adoption of AI; and 20 specific recommendations that, if adopted, will enable all stakeholders to seize the opportunities, to avoid or at least minimise and counterbalance the risks, to respect the principles, and hence to develop a Good AI Society.

The article is structured around four more sections after this introduction. Section 2 states the core opportunities for promoting human dignity and human flourishing offered by AI, together with their corresponding risks. Section 3 offers a brief, high-level view of the advantages for organisations of taking an ethical approach to the development and use of AI. Section 4 formulates 5 ethical principles for AI, building on existing analyses, which should undergird the ethical adoption of AI in society at large. Finally, Sect. 5 offers 20 recommendations for the purpose of developing a Good AI Society in Europe.

Since the launch of AI4People in February 2018, the Scientific Committee has acted collaboratively to develop the recommendations in the final section of this paper. Through this work, we hope to have contributed to the foundation of a Good AI Society we can all share.