Kazakhstan and UNESCO Discuss Collaboration on AI Ethics

Paris, July 22, 2025 – The Permanent Representative of Kazakhstan to UNESCO, Askar Abdrakhmanov, held a meeting with UNESCO Assistant Director-General for Natural Sciences, Lidia Arthur Brito, to discuss collaboration in the field of ethical assessment of artificial intelligence technologies.

At the outset of the meeting, the Kazakh diplomat expressed gratitude for Assistant Brito's support in the recent signing by UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay of the agreement to extend the mandate of the Central Asian Regional Glaciological Centre as a Category 2 institute under the auspices of UNESCO. He confirmed the interest of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Kazakhstan in promptly ratifying the agreement and reaffirmed the country's commitment to supporting the research activities of the centre, which has significant practical relevance.

Permanent Representative Abdrakhmanov also briefed on Kazakhstan’s active efforts in recent years to promote the responsible use of AI and highlighted the special attention given to this topic by President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev.

In response, Assistant Brito emphasized UNESCO’s central role within the UN system in promoting ethical use of AI technologies and underlined the significance of the 2021 UNESCO Recommendation on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence – the first and, to date, only global multilateral standard-setting instrument in this field.

In this context, the two sides discussed the practical implications of this document for Kazakhstan and the prospects for conducting a national study in line with UNESCO’s Readiness Assessment Methodology instrument for the ethical use of AI.

At the conclusion of the meeting, both parties agreed to continue maintaining regular contact and to further strengthen cooperation in this important area.