The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

Introduction to the Committee and Topics:

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) contributes consistently to peace and security by promoting international cooperation in the fields of education, science, culture, communication, and information. UNESCO is also the only United Nations agency responsible for all aspects of education which provides global and regional leadership in education.

Artificial intelligence (AI) technology has brought about positive change in many areas and offers excellent opportunities for human development. But without ethics and regulation, it can exacerbate divisions, increase the digital and social divide, and threaten fundamental human rights and freedoms. With the explosive use of ChatGPT ushered in by its release in 2022, concerns have arisen about how to regulate the use of similar generative AI (GenAI), especially in education. However, to date, most countries still have not enacted ethical norms governing the use of GenAI. While students are gradually increasing their use of GenAI, less than 10% of relevant institutions have developed policies or formal guidance on its use.

As the use of GenAI has exploded, its regulation and control have received growing attention from UNESCO recently. In 2021, the first global normative instrument on the ethics of AI, the Recommendation on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence, identified values and principles shared by all countries to guide the construction of the legal frameworks necessary to ensure the healthy development of AI. In 2023, the release of the Guidance for GenAI in education and research focuses on the field of education and proposes key steps for regulating GenAI tools, aiming to support countries in implementing immediate actions, planning long-term policies, and developing human capacity. However, there are still many gaps in the regulation of GenAI that urgently need to be supplemented.

Therefore, we need to further promote substantial progress in the regulation of GenAI in education, mitigate its potential risks through policy oversight and safeguards, and use it rationally and creatively in education and its universalization process. In this conference, delegates are expected to discuss and negotiate this brand-new area based on existing documents and frameworks, and to advance the legal and ethical exploration of GenAI with substantive documents.