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At the beginning of the 20th century, science fiction introduced the concept of AI to the public. However, technological limitations (such as insufficient computational power of computers) and high costs hindered development.
The first significant achievements arrived only in the 1990s and 2000s, but today AI has become an essential tool in various sectors.
Using AI
AI rapidly evolves and offers numerous advantages, such as safer and cleaner transportation, more efficient manufacturing, more affordable and sustainable energy, and improved decision-making. It generally refers to systems that utilize text mining, computer vision, speech recognition, natural language generation, machine learning, or deep learning.
These technologies can be applied to gather or utilize data to predict, recommend, or decide the optimal actions to achieve specific objectives. AI systems can be software-based or embedded in devices. In 2023, 8% of enterprises in the European Union employed AI.
As AI capabilities grow exponentially, significant concerns arise regarding privacy, bias, inequality, safety, and security. Examining how AI risks affect users is essential to ensuring the responsible and sustainable deployment of these technologies.
ISO/IEC 42001 AI management systems
ISO/IEC 42001 helps businesses and society to safely and efficiently use the maximum value from AI. Users can benefit in numerous ways:
- Improved quality, security, traceability, transparency and reliability of AI applications,
- Enhanced efficiency and AI risk assessments,
- Greater confidence in AI systems,
- Reduced costs of AI development,
- Better regulatory compliance through specific controls, audit schemes and guidance that are consistent with emerging laws and regulations.
All of these factors contribute to the ethical and responsible use of AI. With the rapid adoption of AI worldwide, ISO/IEC 42001 is expected to become a crucial element of an organization’s success, following in the footsteps of other management systems standards like ISO 9001 for quality, ISO 14001 for the environment, and ISO/IEC 27001 for IT security.
The structure of the standard
The standard covers understanding the organisation and its context, leadership commitments, and planning actions to address risks and opportunities. It also includes support through resources and competence, operational planning, AI risk assessment, performance evaluation through monitoring and audits, and continual improvement with corrective actions.
Annex A – Reference control objectives and controls,
Annex B – Implementation guidance for AI controls,
Annex C – Potential AI-related organizational objectives and risk sources,
Annex D – Use of the AI management system across domains or sectors and Integration with other management system standards.