The European Commission has welcomed an agreement reached by leaders of the G7 group of countries at the weekend on artificial intelligence (AI).

The G7, which includes seven countries and the EU, agreed on International Guiding Principles on Artificial Intelligence and a voluntary code of conduct for AI developers under the Hiroshima AI process, which was established by the G7 earlier this year.

A statement from the commission said that the principles and the code would complement the legally binding rules that the EU is currently finalising under the EU AI Act.

Mitigating risks

The President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen was among those who subscribed to the G7 leaders' statement issued by the Japan’s presidency of the group.

Von der Leyen said that the G7 initiatives reflected EU values to promote trustworthy AI, and called on AI developers to sign and implement the code of conduct as soon as possible.

The 11 guiding principles provide guidance for organisations developing, deploying and using advanced AI systems, such as foundation models and generative AI, to promote the safety and trustworthiness of the technology.

They include commitments to mitigate risks and misuse, and identify vulnerabilities.

The principles also aim to encourage responsible information-sharing, the reporting of incidents, and investment in cyber-security, and they include a labelling system to enable users to identify AI-generated content.