To help policymakers, regulators, legislators and others characterise AI systems deployed in specific contexts, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has developed a user-friendly tool to evaluate AI systems from a policy perspective.

The OECD.AI Network of Experts developed the OECD Framework for Classifying AI Systems as a tool that can help assess the opportunities and risks that different types of AI systems present and to inform their national AI strategies. 

The classification system is based on the OECD’s definition of AI and divided into four dimensions:

• Context: The environment where the system is being deployed and who is deploying it. Data and Input: The data the system uses and the kinds of input it receives.
• AI Model: The underlying particularities that make up the AI system – is it, for instance, a neural network, or a linear model?
• Task and Output: The tasks the system performs and the outputs that make up the results of its work. 

The framework classifies AI systems and applications along the following dimensions: 

• People & Planet
• Economic Context
• Data & Input
• AI Model 
• Task & Output

In particular, the framework provides a baseline framework to help support and advance a common understanding of AI; metrics, registries or inventories of AI systems; sector-specific frameworks, e.g. in healthcare; risk assessment, incident reporting and risk management. Shown below are the classification framework dimensions and criteria at a glance:

AI is changing how we learn, work, play, interact and live. Policymakers and others need smart tools to differentiate between the types of AI systems and the impact that they can have on people’s lives, whether good or bad. This covers what AI systems can do but also where and how they do it. For example, facial recognition can be very effective for smartphone security but used in other contexts it can infringe upon human rights.

OECD is a forum of countries describing themselves as committed to democracy and the market economy, providing a platform to compare policy experiences, seek answers to common problems, identify good practices and coordinate domestic and international policies of its members. 

One can read the entire OECD framework here.