National foreword

This British Standard is the UK implementation of ISO/IEC 38507:2022.

The UK participation in its preparation was entrusted to Technical Committee ART/1, Artificial Intelligence.

A list of organizations represented on this committee can be obtained on request to its committee manager.

Contractual and legal considerations

This publication has been prepared in good faith, however no representation, warranty, assurance or undertaking (express or implied) is or will be made, and no responsibility or liability is or will be accepted by BSI in relation to the adequacy, accuracy, completeness or reasonableness of this publication. All and any such responsibility and liability is expressly disclaimed to the full extent permitted by the law.

This publication is provided as is, and is to be used at the recipient’s own risk.

The recipient is advised to consider seeking professional guidance with respect to its use of this publication.

This publication is not intended to constitute a contract. Users are responsible for its correct application.

Compliance with a British Standard cannot confer immunity from legal obligations.

This British Standard was published under the authority of the Standards Policy and Strategy Committee on 31 May 2022.

Foreword

ISO (the International Organization for Standardization) and IEC (the International Electrotechnical Commission) form the specialized system for worldwide standardization. National bodies that are members of ISO or IEC participate in the development of International Standards through technical committees established by the respective organization to deal with particular fields of technical activity. ISO and IEC technical committees collaborate in fields of mutual interest. Other international organizations, governmental and non-governmental, in liaison with ISO and IEC, also take part in the work.

The procedures used to develop this document and those intended for its further maintenance are described in the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 1. In particular, the different approval criteria needed for the different types of document should be noted. This document was drafted in accordance with the editorial rules of the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2 (see www.iso.org/directives or www.iec.ch/members_experts/refdocs).

Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this document may be the subject of patent rights. ISO and IEC shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights. Details of any patent rights identified during the development of the document will be in the Introduction and/or on the ISO list of patent declarations received (see www.iso.org/patents) or the IEC list of patent declarations received (see patents.iec.ch).

Any trade name used in this document is information given for the convenience of users and does not constitute an endorsement.

For an explanation of the voluntary nature of standards, the meaning of ISO specific terms and expressions related to conformity assessment, as well as information about ISO's adherence to the World Trade Organization (WTO) principles in the Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) see www.iso.org/iso/foreword.html. In the IEC, see www.iec.ch/understanding-standards.

This document was prepared jointly by Joint Technical Committee ISO/IEC JTC 1, Information technology, Subcommittees SC40, IT service management and IT governance and SC 42, Artificial intelligence.

Any feedback or questions on this document should be directed to the user’s national standards body. A complete listing of these bodies can be found at www.iso.org/members.html and www.iec.ch/national-committees.

Introduction

The objective of this document is to provide guidance for the governing body of an organization that is using, or is considering the use of, artificial intelligence (AI).

This document provides guidance on the role of a governing body with regard to the use of AI within their organization and encourages organizations to use appropriate standards to underpin their governance of the use of AI.

This document addresses the nature and mechanisms of AI to the extent necessary to understand the governance implications of their use: what are the additional opportunities, risks and responsibilities that the use of AI brings? The emphasis is on governance (which is done by humans) of the organization’s use of AI and not on the technologies making up any AI system. However, such governance requires an understanding of the implications of the technologies.

Artificial intelligence (AI)

AI embraces a family of technologies that bring together computing power, scalability, networking, connected devices and interfaces, together with vast amounts of data. Reference to ‘AI’ in this document is intended to be understood to refer to a whole family of technologies and methods, and not to any specific technology, method or application. For AI concepts and terminology, see ISO/IEC 22989:‑1.

Use of AI

“Use of AI” is defined in this document in the broadest sense as developing or applying an AI system through any part of its life cycle to fulfil objectives and create value for the organization. This includes relationships with any party providing or using such systems.

Governance implications of the use of AI

The scope of this document is concerned with the implications for an organization of the use of AI. As with any powerful tool, the use of AI brings new risks and responsibilities that should be addressed by organizations that use it. AI is not inherently ‘good’ or ‘evil’, ‘fair’ or ‘biased’, ‘ethical’ or ‘unethical’ although its use can be or can seem to be so.

The organization’s purpose, ethics and other guidelines are reflected, either formally or informally, in its policies. This document examines both governance and organizational policies and their application and provides guidance to adapt these for the use of AI. The operational aspects of the policies are implemented through management. This document refers to other standards for details on related topics including social responsibility, trustworthiness (such as risk management, management of bias, and quality) and compliance management.

1 Scope

This document provides guidance for members of the governing body of an organization to enable and govern the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI), in order to ensure its effective, efficient and acceptable use within the organization.

This document also provides guidance to a wider community, including:

executive managers;
external businesses or technical specialists, such as legal or accounting specialists, retail or industrial associations, or professional bodies;
public authorities and policymakers;
internal and external service providers (including consultants);
assessors and auditors.

This document is applicable to the governance of current and future uses of AI as well as the implications of such use for the organization itself.

This document is applicable to any organization, including public and private companies, government entities and not-for-profit organizations. This document is applicable to an organization of any size irrespective of their dependence on data or information technologies.

2 Normative references

3 Terms and definitions

3.1 Terms related to AI

3.2 Terms related to governance

4 Governance implications of the organizational use of AI

4.1 General

4.2 Maintaining governance when introducing AI

4.3 Maintaining accountability when introducing AI

5 Overview of AI and AI systems

5.1 General

5.2 How AI systems differ from other information technologies

5.3 AI ecosystem

5.4 Benefits of the use of AI

5.5 Constraints on the use of AI

6 Policies to address use of AI

6.1 General

6.2 Governance oversight of AI

6.3 Governance of decision-making

6.4 Governance of data use

6.5 Culture and values

6.6 Compliance

6.7 Risk

Bibliography

BS ISO/IEC 38507:2022

Information technology. Governance of IT. Governance implications of the use of artificial intelligence by organizations

Current

Published:

31 Oct 2022