Press Release - World Leaders Must Deliver on Global Transparency Standards at Paris AI Summit

February 5, 2025 – Zürich, Switzerland – At the forthcoming Artificial Intelligence (AI) Action Summit in Paris, experts studying the global information environment are calling for global action to build trust in AI through transparent systems and clear, ethical frameworks. With world leaders focused on the future of AI, research from the International Panel on the Information Environment (IPIE) highlights the urgent need for proactive, globally recognized standards to ensure AI operates transparently, ethically, and in the public interest. 

At the Summit, the IPIE will launch a new scientific panel to study the impact of AI on economic development and inclusion. The Scientific Panel on AI and Economic Inclusion comes on the heels of the IPIE’s publication of its recommendations for a global AI auditing framework. 

Trust has been flagged as a key theme of the Summit, with organizers calling for science, solutions and standards to ultimately help create public interest artificial intelligence.  

The IPIE’s latest scientific assessment calls for the development of global standards for AI audits to ensure accountability and transparency in AI systems. As artificial intelligence becomes deeply embedded in our lives, addressing its potential to perpetuate biases, exacerbate inequalities, and cause environmental damage and other harms has never been more critical.  

Increasingly, governments, regulators, industry, civil society, and researchers are turning to audits to assess an AI system’s safety. Establishing these global standards must be a cornerstone of effective AI governance. The IPIE’s work on this topic fills a critical gap as demand for AI audits has surged, while standardized processes for reviewing AI systems remain absent.  

Professor Philip Howard, President of the IPIE, who is attending the AI Action Summit, said: 

“Trust in AI isn’t a given—it is engineered through global, independent audits that expose and prevent systemic harms and risks. Just as we regulate industries like oil or tobacco to prevent catastrophic harm, AI needs global audit standards to ensure it operates transparently and fairly.”

With trust in AI at a tipping point, the IPIE’s report underscores the need for proactive oversight to build trust and ensure AI systems operate ethically across borders.  

“The future of AI isn't written in code—it is negotiated at the table of global cooperation at events like the AI Action Summit,” added Professor Howard. “An unaudited AI system is a global threat: its entire production, from mineral extraction to algorithmic decision-making, must be mapped and made transparent in order to build public trust." 

Summit leaders have warned that the current trajectory of artificial intelligence development will result in increased inequality between those who control and those who use artificial intelligence. 

Digital sociologist at the Centre de Recherche sur les Inégalités at Sciences Po in Paris, Dr. Jen Schradie, will lead the new Scientific Panel on AI and Economic Inclusion for the IPIE. She said: 

“AI governance is not about controlling these systems, it's about democratizing AI’s development across the many nations currently left out of the conversation. Without coordinated global governance, we risk allowing AI use to accelerate without guardrails and further entrench inequality, exploitation, and harm. Shared frameworks are a pivotal step toward ensuring AI serves all of humanity, not just those who build or profit from it.”

On the Summit theme of ‘public interest AI,’ financial services are a glaring example of the way AI is reshaping access to economic opportunities on a global scale. From banking, housing, and employment opportunities, AI systems are increasingly influential in determining who gets access to critical resources—and how. 

 “AI should be a force for economic empowerment, not exclusion,” Dr. Schradie added. “But there are risks of amplifying systemic biases that keep marginalized groups from accessing credit, housing, and jobs. Transparency isn’t just a technical requirement—it’s a fundamental human right to ensure that AI is working in the public interest.”

According to Dr. Schradie:

“When marginalized voices are left out of the data that trains AI, our lack of understanding of non-elite voices has economic implications beyond what shows up on ChatGPT or DeepSeek. It means that AI bias reinforces economic inequality by excluding opportunities for people ignored by both problems and solutions that are available.”

Using the latest advances in applied policy research, the new panel will explore the best ways to prevent gender, race, and class-based discrimination in employment, banking, housing, and other domains of economic activity.  

This panel of global experts will summarize the latest research about how AI systems have been impacting access to markets, human rights, government services, consumer rights, and the sustainable development goals related to economic well-being.  

ENDS 

Further details about the IPIE can be found on its website, www.IPIE.info.     

For media inquiries, interviews, or more information, please contact Press@IPIE.info. The IPIE will be at the AI Action Summit in Paris. Professor Philip Howard and Dr. Jen Schradie will be available for interviews. 

The IPIE is launching its Scientific Panel on AI and Economic Inclusion during the AI Action Summit, please register on Eventbrite to attend.

The IPIE will provide a virtual briefing on February 27, 2025 on the latest scientific assessment from the Scientific Panel on Global Standards for AI Auditing. Please contact Press@IPIE.info if you would like to attend.

About the IPIE 

The International Panel on the Information Environment (IPIE) is an independent and global science organization providing scientific knowledge about the health of the world's information environment. Based in Switzerland, the IPIE offers policymakers, industry, and civil society actionable scientific assessments about threats to the information environment, including AI bias, algorithmic manipulation, and disinformation. The IPIE is the only scientific body systematically organizing, evaluating, and elevating research with the broad aim of improving the global information environment. Hundreds of researchers worldwide contribute to the IPIE's reports.

‍