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Artificial intelligence (AI) offers tremendous benefits but also poses risks. Some of these risks have materialised into what are known as 'AI incidents'. Due to the widespread use of AI in various sectors, a surge in such incidents can be expected. To effectively monitor and prevent these risks, stakeholders need a precise yet adaptable definition of AI incidents. This report presents research and findings on terminology and practices related to incident definitions, encompassing both AI-specific and cross-disciplinary contexts. It establishes a knowledge base for identifying commonalities and encouraging the development of AI-specific adaptations in the future.

In 2019, the OECD Council adopted the Recommendation on Artificial Intelligence (the 'OECD AI Principles'). These include five values-based principles and five recommendations for OECD countries and adhering partner economies to promote responsible and trustworthy AI policies. This report takes stock of initiatives launched by countries worldwide to implement the OECD AI Principles which were reported to the OECD.AI Policy Observatory as of May 2023. It provides an overview of national AI strategies, including their oversight and monitoring bodies, expert advisory groups, as well as their monitoring and evaluation frameworks. It also discusses the various regulatory approaches that countries are adopting to ensure AI trustworthiness, such as ethics frameworks, AI-specific regulations, and regulatory sandboxes. Additionally, the report offers policy examples for each of the ten OECD AI Principles to facilitate cross-learning among policymakers.

Ces dernières années, l'économie mondiale a subi de profonds chocs qui ont eu un impact considérable sur les petites et moyennes entreprises (PME) et les entrepreneurs. Alors qu'un soutien gouvernemental rapide et massif a permis à ces entreprises de faire face aux conséquences économiques directes de la pandémie de COVID-19, de nouvelles menaces surgissent. La montée des tensions géopolitiques et des risques financiers mondiaux, une inflation élevée, le resserrement des politiques monétaires et fiscales, les pénuries de main-d'œuvre, les barrières commerciales et le ralentissement de l'intégration aux chaînes de valeur mondiales sont autant de facteurs qui contribuent à rendre l'environnement commercial des PME hostile. De plus, il est urgent d’accélérer leur contribution aux transitions verte et numérique, et de les aider à mieux s’orienter sur la scène internationale où les échanges et les investissements sont aujourd’hui en pleine mutation. Dans ce contexte, les Perspectives de l'OCDE sur les PME et l'entrepreneuriat 2023 abordent les tendances récentes en termes de performance des PME, l'évolution de leurs conditions d'activité ainsi que les implications pour l'action publique qui en découlent. Cette publication se penche également sur le thème général de l'intégration des PME à toute une série de réseaux, notamment les réseaux mondiaux de production et de chaînes d'approvisionnement, le rôle des entreprises dirigées par des femmes dans les échanges internationaux, les réseaux de connaissances et d'innovation, et les écosystèmes de compétences. De plus, l'accent est placé sur les politiques mises en place pour faciliter l'accès des PME à ces réseaux afin de leur permettre de tirer pleinement parti des transformations qu’elles subissent actuellement. Dans sa seconde partie, le rapport propose des profils statistiques nationaux qui comparent chacun des 38 pays de l'OCDE à travers toute une série d'indicateurs-clés.

This report analyses the demand for positions that require skills needed to develop or work with AI systems across 14 OECD countries between 2019 and 2022. It finds that, despite rapid growth in the demand for AI skills, AI-related online vacancies comprised less than 1% of all job postings and were predominantly found in sectors such as ICT and Professional Services. Skills related to Machine Learning were the most sought after. The US-focused part of the study reveals a consistent demand for socio-emotional, foundational, and technical skills across all AI employers. However, leading firms – those who posted the most AI jobs – exhibited a higher demand for AI professionals combining technical expertise with leadership, innovation, and problem-solving skills, underscoring the importance of these competencies in the AI field.

This paper presents new evidence on the size and direction of governments’ R&D funding response to the COVID-19 pandemic through the exploration of a novel data infrastructure, the OECD Fundstat initiative for the analysis of government-funded R&D projects. The document reports on the exploratory development and application of automatic classification tools to detect relevant COVID-19 R&D funding, map salient topics and classify and allocate project funding according to priorities in the WHO COVID-19 R&D Blueprint, as well as comparing results with similar analysis of scientific publication output data. The results provide new insights on which areas of enquiry were prioritised by governmental R&D funding bodies.

This document reports on the final output of the OECD microBeRD+ project. Drawing on the outcomes of previous work, this study presents new evidence on the impact of business R&D support policies – tax incentives and direct forms of support – on business R&D investment (R&D input additionality) and the innovation and economic performance of firms (R&D output additionality). The report also provides an exploratory analysis of R&D spillovers.

En mai 2023, les dirigeants du G7 ont recensé les thèmes à examiner dans le cadre du processus d’Hiroshima et demandé l’établissement rapide d’un état des lieux des possibilités et enjeux associés à l’IA générative. Ce rapport donne à voir les réponses reçues à un questionnaire conçu pour faciliter cet état des lieux et doit étayer les échanges du G7 au sujet des priorités d’action communes en ce qui concerne cette technologie. Il permet également de brosser une rapide vue d’ensemble de son évolution dans le temps et dans l’espace. Le rapport et les réponses au questionnaire doivent être considérés comme le reflet de la situation à un instant T : ils donnent une idée des tendances observables à l’été 2023, dans un contexte technologique en mutation rapide. Le rapport a contribué à éclairer et structurer les discussions tenues dans le cadre du processus du G7, dit d’Hiroshima, sur l’IA.

This report assesses the continued relevance of the OECD Recommendation on Cross-Border Co-operation in the Enforcement of Laws Protecting Privacy, originally adopted in 2007. It examines whether the Recommendation has kept pace with the evolving needs of Privacy Enforcement Authorities (PEAs) in light of significant technological and legal changes over the past 15 years. While the principles underlying the Recommendation are seen to remain solid, the report highlights several gaps and challenges for cross-border enforcement co-operation. It concludes that the OECD could either provide additional guidance to support the implementation of the Recommendation or consider revising it to better address current challenges.

Generative artificial intelligence (AI) creates new content in response to prompts, offering transformative potential across multiple sectors such as education, entertainment, healthcare and scientific research. However, these technologies also pose critical societal and policy challenges that policy makers must confront: potential shifts in labour markets, copyright uncertainties, and risk associated with the perpetuation of societal biases and the potential for misuse in the creation of disinformation and manipulated content. Consequences could extend to the spreading of mis- and disinformation, perpetuation of discrimination, distortion of public discourse and markets, and the incitement of violence. Governments recognise the transformative impact of generative AI and are actively working to address these challenges. This paper aims to inform these policy considerations and support decision makers in addressing them.

The digital security of communication networks is crucial to the functioning of our societies. Four trends are shaping networks, raising digital security implications: i) the increasing criticality of communication networks, ii) increased virtualisation of networks and use of cloud services, iii) a shift towards more openness in networks and iv) the role of artificial intelligence in networks. These trends bring benefits and challenges to digital security. While digital security ultimately depends on the decisions made by private actors (e.g. network operators and their suppliers), the report underlines the role governments can play to enhance the digital security of communication networks. It outlines key policy objectives and actions governments can take to incentivise the adoption of best practices and support stakeholders to reach an optimal level of digital security, ranging from light-touch to more interventionist approaches.