Artificial IntelligenceTechnology LawAI Readiness Assessment Methodology (RAM) by UNESCO

Exploring AI Readiness: A Look at UNESCO’s AI Readiness Assessment Methodology(RAM) and India’s Potential. This blog provides an understanding of the RAM and how India can use it.

The world is rapidly entering the age of Artificial Intelligence (AI), with AI-based tools and applications impacting our lives. This technological shift requires careful consideration to ensure that AI is developed and applied ethically, for the benefit of humanity. To help countries navigate this complex landscape, UNESCO has developed the Readiness Assessment Methodology (RAM), a tool designed to evaluate a country’s preparedness to implement AI ethically and responsibly. This blog post will explore this methodology, and how India can leverage it to its advantage.

What is the UNESCO Readiness Assessment Methodology (RAM)?

The RAM is a macro-level instrument that helps countries understand their current position in implementing AI ethically and responsibly. It is designed to highlight the institutional and regulatory changes needed to ensure AI benefits all citizens. The RAM was developed by the UNESCO Secretariat with the guidance of a High-Level Expert Group. It is composed of five key dimensions:

• Legal and Regulatory: This dimension focuses on the legal frameworks, policies, and regulations that govern AI, including data protection, privacy laws, and accountability mechanisms.
• Social and Cultural: This dimension assesses the social and cultural factors influencing the ethical development and deployment of AI, such as diversity, inclusion, public engagement, and environmental sustainability.
• Economic: This aspect looks at the economic impact of AI, the size of the AI sector, investment, and labor market trends related to AI.
• Scientific and Educational: This dimension examines a country’s research and development in AI, including publications, talent, and educational programs.
• Technical and Infrastructural: This aspect evaluates the ICT infrastructure, such as internet connectivity, computing capabilities, and data availability.

Let’s understand more in these dimensions

Each of the above dimensions are designed to assess different aspects of a country’s preparedness for the ethical development and deployment of AI. These dimensions include:

• Legal and Regulatory Dimension: This dimension focuses on the laws, policies, and regulations that a country has in place to govern AI. It addresses the institutional and human capacity of Member States to implement the UNESCO Recommendation and to manage the societal changes that come with increased AI adoption. This includes:
  • AI Policy and Regulation: This assesses whether a country has a national AI strategy, and if so, whether it includes an ethical component, was created by a diverse team, and includes a detailed implementation plan. It also looks at whether the country has any binding AI regulations or soft law.
  • Data Protection and Privacy Laws: This examines the presence and efficacy of data protection laws, including whether these laws give users control over their data, include transparency requirements, and include enforcement mechanisms.
  • Data Sharing and Accessibility: This evaluates if a country has a national data sharing framework and open government data policies, looking at how data is shared between the public and private sectors and if data is available for research.
  • Procurement Laws and Policies: This determines whether there are laws or policies in place regarding the procurement of AI systems, including whether there is a special approval process or a list of certified vendors.
  • Freedom of Information Acts/Access to Knowledge Acts: This assesses the existence and efficacy of freedom of information acts, including whether individuals can request information about how AI systems are used in the public sector.
  • Due Process and Accountability: This looks at laws protecting due rights and whether there are mechanisms to address harms caused by AI systems, including whether regulators or courts can request information about AI systems.
  • Online Safety and Integrity of Speech: This examines if there are frameworks for notice and take-down policies for harmful content online, as well as any laws or policies regarding the impact of AI on social media.
  • Public Sector Capacity: This evaluates whether the government has strategies to improve digital skills in the public sector.
• Social and Cultural Dimension: This dimension considers the social and cultural factors relevant for the ethical development and deployment of AI systems. It includes:
  • Diversity, Inclusion, and Equality: This assesses the digital gender gap, the rural/urban gap in internet use, and whether there are policies in place to reduce these gaps and enhance diversity in the AI workforce. It also looks at whether there is online content to train AI systems in all of a country’s official languages, as well as indigenous languages.
  • Public Engagement and Trust: This examines the public’s trust in government websites and apps, as well as their trust in AI and technology in general.
  • Environmental and Sustainability Policies: This assesses whether there are policies to address the impact of AI on the environment and sustainability, including the environmental impact of AI’s energy demands.
  • Health and Social Well-being: This evaluates whether the country has a digital health policy, and if so, whether it addresses AI technologies and their impact on both physical and mental health.
  • Culture: This looks at the policies regarding the use of AI for the preservation of cultural heritage, minority, and indigenous languages.
• Scientific and Educational Dimension: This dimension aims to assess the level of research and development related to AI, as well as the educational opportunities available for students and the general public. This includes:
  • Research and Innovation: This looks into a country’s R&D expenditure, research output, and ethical AI research, including the number of AI researchers and publications.
  • Education: This includes assessing whether there are policies to integrate AI into the education system, the availability of AI-related programs, the curriculum content, and public access to AI education.
• Economic Dimension: This dimension addresses the size and strength of the AI ecosystem in a country. This includes:
  • General Questions: This looks at the estimated contribution of AI to the economy, the number of AI companies, the level of AI usage in the private and public sector, as well as R&D spending on AI.
  • Labor Markets: This assesses the share of job vacancies requiring AI-related skills, the concentration of AI talent, and whether there is a strategy to respond to the impact of AI on the labor market.
  • Intermediate Consumption: This looks at how much companies spend on AI services as a share of intermediate consumption.
  • Investments and Output: This includes the business enterprise expenditure on R&D in the computer programming sector, as well as high-tech exports as a share of trade.
• Technical and Infrastructural Dimension: This dimension assesses the ICT and related infrastructure in place to support AI development and implementation. This includes:
  • Infrastructure and Connectivity: This looks at the share of the population with mobile and broadband subscriptions, internet access, and electricity. It also assesses the gender gap in internet and mobile access, as well as the rural/urban gap in internet access.
  • Applied Standards: This assesses whether the country is involved in the standardization of AI and digital technologies.
  • Computing Capabilities: This looks into the number of data centers, colocation data centers, and if there are policies for AI-driven cloud computing.
  • Statistical Performance: This assesses the availability of data for the Sustainable Development Goals, and whether there are policies for data management.

Each dimension is further broken down into specific categories, indicators, and sub-indicators, using both qualitative and quantitative measures. This comprehensive approach helps countries identify their strengths and weaknesses in each area and provides a basis for developing targeted strategies and policies. Within each dimension, the RAM uses both qualitative and quantitative indicators. This ensures a comprehensive assessment of each area and allows for countries to update their information as needed. The RAM also seeks to provide comparative information for countries to learn from each other, without ranking them.

Download RAM

How Does the RAM Work?

The implementation of the RAM is a collaborative effort involving several stakeholders:

• National Stakeholder Team: This team is composed of representatives from various sectors, including government, academia, civil society, and the private sector, and is supported by the UNESCO Secretariat and an independent expert.
• Independent Consultant/Research Organization: This entity conducts the readiness assessment within the country, coordinating with the National Stakeholder Team.
• UNESCO Secretariat and Field Offices: They provide support throughout the implementation process.

The process involves several key steps:

1. Identification of Beneficiary Countries: Countries are selected based on consultations and requests from Member States.
2. National Launch Event: An event is held to demonstrate the government’s support and to launch the National Stakeholder Team.
3. Training: UNESCO provides training on implementing the Recommendation on the Ethics of AI, focusing on the RAM.
4. Assessment: The team, supported by a consultant, conducts the readiness assessment based on the RAM’s dimensions and indicators.
5. Mid-Term Workshop: This workshop assesses progress, addresses challenges, and identifies missing data.
6. Concluding Workshop: A draft country report is presented, and feedback is gathered from stakeholders.
7. Final Report and Roadmap: The final report provides an overview of the country’s readiness, and a roadmap is developed in consultation with the country.

MeitY and UNESCO held Stakeholder Consultation 

India’s Potential Benefits from the RAM

India, with its rapidly growing tech sector and ambition to be a leader in AI, stands to gain significantly from using the UNESCO RAM. Here’s how:

• Identifying Strengths and Gaps: The RAM will help India identify its strengths and weaknesses in different dimensions related to AI readiness. For instance, India may have a strong IT sector but may need improvements in public awareness and ethical AI research.
• Developing a National AI Strategy: The RAM provides a framework to assess and enhance India’s National AI Strategy, ensuring that it aligns with ethical principles and addresses human rights concerns. The tool specifically asks about the existence of a national strategy, whether it has an ethical component, and if it includes a detailed implementation plan.
• Enhancing Regulatory Frameworks: By assessing the legal and regulatory dimensions, India can identify gaps in its current laws and policies, and implement appropriate regulatory frameworks, such as data protection and privacy laws.
• Boosting Public Trust: The social and cultural dimension of RAM allows India to assess and enhance public trust in AI, ensuring that policies are inclusive and promote social well-being. For instance, the RAM asks about digital inclusion and equality as well as public engagement and trust in government websites and apps.
• Promoting Research and Education: Through assessing the scientific and educational dimensions, India can identify areas needing more investment in R&D, talent development, and education programs. The RAM also helps in understanding whether technical and ethical aspects of AI are integrated into the curriculum.
• Improving Infrastructure: The technical and infrastructural dimension will help India assess its ICT infrastructure to ensure that it can support the development and deployment of AI technologies. The RAM also examines digital infrastructure in the country, including internet access and computing capabilities.
• Cross-country Learning: The RAM enables India to learn from other countries and share its own best practices and data via UNESCO’s Global Observatory.

Key Challenges to Address

While the RAM provides a structured approach, it’s important to acknowledge potential challenges in the Indian context:

• Data Availability: India needs to ensure the availability of reliable data across all dimensions of the RAM, especially since the tool often relies on publicly available data sets. The RAM encourages countries to collect data where it is lacking.
• Stakeholder Coordination: Effective implementation requires strong coordination among various stakeholders, including government ministries, academic institutions, civil society organizations, and the private sector.
• Resource Allocation: Adequate financial and human resources are necessary to conduct the assessment and implement the recommended changes.
• Inclusivity: The process should ensure inclusivity and representativeness, including the needs of marginalized communities. The RAM itself asks questions about gender balance and diversity in the workforce.

CorpoTech Legal point of View

The UNESCO Readiness Assessment Methodology is a valuable tool for countries to navigate the complexities of AI development and deployment. For India, the RAM offers an opportunity to evaluate its current position, identify areas for improvement, and create a roadmap for the ethical and responsible implementation of AI. By leveraging this methodology, India can ensure that its AI initiatives are not only innovative and technologically advanced, but also ethical, inclusive, and beneficial for all its citizens.