OECD Recommendation on Artificial Intelligence

The Recommendation is an OECD Council legal instrument. Standing in the graph is “In force (soft law).” Soft law means adherents commit politically and administratively; the text does not by itself create private rights in domestic courts.

The introductory history states that the Recommendation was revised by the OECD Council meeting at Ministerial level on 3 May 2024 to reflect technological and policy developments, including generative AI, and to further facilitate implementation.

Section I defines an AI system as a machine-based system that, for explicit or implicit objectives, infers from the input it receives how to generate outputs such as predictions, content, recommendations, or decisions that can influence physical or virtual environments. Different AI systems vary in autonomy and adaptiveness after deployment.

Section 1 then sets five values-based principles for trustworthy AI (1.1–1.5): inclusive growth, sustainable development and well-being; human rights and democratic values, including fairness and privacy; transparency and explainability; robustness, security and safety; and accountability.

Section 2 sets five recommendations for policymakers (2.1–2.5), titled on OECD.AI as: investing in AI research and development; fostering an inclusive AI-enabling ecosystem; shaping an enabling interoperable governance and policy environment for AI; building human capacity and preparing for labour market transition; and international co-operation for trustworthy AI.

National laws that reuse the definition or principles gain a common vocabulary. That reuse is a domestic drafting choice. The Recommendation itself does not create enforceable duties until a statute or regulator incorporates them.

• Definition · shared AI-system vocabulary across adherents.
• Principles 1.1–1.5 · inclusive growth, sustainable development and well-being; human rights and democratic values, including fairness and privacy; transparency and explainability; robustness, security and safety; accountability.
• Policy recommendations 2.1–2.5 · investing in AI R&D; inclusive AI-enabling ecosystem (OECD title); interoperable governance and policy; human capacity and labour-market transition; international co-operation.
• Domestic step · statutes and regulators decide incorporation and enforcement.

It is not a treaty with automatic judicial effect and not an EU-style horizontal ban list. When a legislature cites the OECD text, treat the citation as an attributed drafting choice unless the statute adopts operative duties.

The Recommendation is soft law. It does not prove that any particular domestic statute has incorporated the definition or principles. Later national instruments are separate evidence of legal effect. Adherent lists and domestic incorporation maps change over time and are not frozen by the 3 May 2024 revision date alone.

The following actors are linked to this vehicle in the graph. Their presence here records institutional role on the page, not an independent finding that each actor has completed a compliance duty.

• OECD Council (international-organisation): OECD decision-making body that adopted and later revised the Recommendation on Artificial Intelligence.

Each block below is an explicit evidence row: a claim that points to one supporting passage. Read the quote and locator before treating the paraphrase as settled.

• OECD Recommendation defines an AI system for adherents. The definition is soft law. Domestic statutes and regulations determine whether and how it is incorporated. Operational note: It is a common reference point for interoperability claims in EU, US and other instruments.
• OECD Council revised the AI Recommendation on 3 May 2024. The revision date marks an update to an existing 2019 Recommendation rather than a new binding treaty. Operational note: It distinguishes the original 2019 adoption from the current operative soft-law text.

Dated events attached to this vehicle. Each entry is a graph event with its own update page when present.

• 2024-05-03 · publication · OECD revises the AI Recommendation. The revision updated soft-law principles and definitions after generative-AI developments. Consequence recorded: Refreshed the leading intergovernmental soft-law baseline for trustworthy AI.

A vehicle is an instrument. Asks are the outcomes the instrument is treated as advancing in the AI Tribune graph.

• Adopt the OECD AI-system definition and trustworthy-AI principles Status: adopted. Use the OECD Recommendation’s AI-system definition and principles as a shared baseline for domestic policy and legislative drafting.

These documents are the originals behind the evidence rows. Prefer the document text over secondary paraphrase when the two diverge.

• OECD Recommendation of the Council on Artificial Intelligence (OECD/LEGAL/0449) (Intergovernmental recommendation, 2024-05-03). OECD Council Recommendation first adopted in 2019 and revised in May 2024, including the shared AI-system definition.