Ministerial Meeting on Technology and Digital: G7 Joint Statement

Analytical Studies
G7/G8 Health Ministerial Meetings

Cernobbio-Como, Italy, October 15, 2024
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We, the G7 Digital and Tech Ministers, met on 15 October 2024 in Cernobbio-Como, Italy, under the chairmanship of Sen. Alessio Butti – Undersecretary of State for Technological Innovation, Presidency of the Council of Ministers – to advance on our commitments from our last meeting in Trento, Italy on 15 March 2024 in the areas of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the public sector, digital government, digital identity, and the outcomes of the Hiroshima AI Process.

We are grateful for the efforts of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) as knowledge partners.

We remain dedicated to fostering a collaborative environment to address the challenges and opportunities presented by digital technologies, ensuring they contribute positively to our societies. We welcome the Global Digital Compact and look forward to supporting an inclusive and transparent multistakeholder process to implement and follow up on its commitments, in particular by further strengthening the Internet Governance Forum. We also welcome the recent Joint Statement on the Security and Resilience of Undersea Cables in a Globally Digitalized World, which includes principles for the deployment, repair and maintenance of undersea cable infrastructure.

We recognise the potential of safe, secure, and trustworthy AI to advance the digital transformation of governments and improve the delivery of public services. We welcome the Toolkit for Artificial Intelligence in the Public Sector, delivered with the support of the OECD and UNESCO to provide a framework for the development, deployment, and use of AI in the public sector, while taking into account ethical considerations, in a manner that respects rule of law, democracy, and human rights and fundamental freedoms, especially privacy rights, and protects personal data and intellectual property. We are confident that the toolkit will help the public sector and, where relevant, other stakeholders, leverage the opportunities and manage the risks of AI, and translate principles into actionable policies.

We remain committed to fostering human-centred, resilient, reliable and rights-respecting digital public services, which may benefit from AI and digital public infrastructure, while recognising that G7 members have different approaches. We also recognise the importance of cloud computing and other tools for providing digital public services and fostering digital public infrastructure. In this regard, we welcome the Compendium of Digital Government Services, prepared with the support of the OECD, as a tool for showcasing best practices and solutions across the G7 and guiding future co-operation.

We underscore the importance of national efforts and international cooperation to foster more inclusive digital governments, promote AI enabled digital government services, and reap the benefits of digital transformation for all.

We recognise the importance of secure and trusted digital identity solutions and the continued opportunities and challenges of promoting interoperability across borders. We welcome the Mapping Exercise of Digital Identity Approaches, delivered with the support of the OECD, including its strategic recommendations for cooperation on digital identity among G7 members. We call on the OECD to disseminate the mapping exercise among key partners outside the G7 to broaden its scope and promote wider collaboration and future interoperability, as appropriate, and report to the G7 Digital & Technology Working Group on the follow-up.

We discussed the findings from the pilot phase of the Reporting Framework for the Hiroshima Process International Code of Conduct for Organizations Developing Advanced AI Systems, conducted by the OECD from 19 July to 6 September 2024. We extend our gratitude to all the participating organisations for their invaluable support in enhancing the reporting framework during this period which has been a truly multistakeholder effort, engaging companies, academia, civil society, international organisations, and governments in a collaborative exercise. In this regard, we note the Italian Presidency's Overview of the OECD Pilot of the Hiroshima AI Process Reporting Framework. We continue to work to develop the Reporting Framework with the aim to advance it by the end of the year, in collaboration with the OECD and the participating organisations.

We look forward to continuing to work towards developing a brand, under the Italian Presidency, that can be used to identify organisations that are voluntarily participating in and implementing the Code’s forthcoming reporting framework.

We plan to continue our dialogue on policies, tools and mechanisms to pursue our respective efforts, through the G7 and other relevant fora, to advance safe, secure, and trustworthy AI, including in the public sector, on digital government, and on digital identity approaches. We reaffirm our commitment to keep abreast of further developments in AI that benefits everyone and step up our efforts to enhance interoperability among our AI governance approaches.

We look forward to Canada’s G7 Presidency in 2025 and to continuing to build on the outcomes of Italy’s 2024 G7 Presidency in the future.

Source: Official website of Italy's G7 pressidency

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	Please send comments to: g7@utoronto.ca This page was last updated October 17, 2024.