Skip to content

GCRI · Innovation and technological change

Responsible technology

Responsible technology is safe, serves people well, keeps humans in control of consequential decisions, is accessible and respects rights. The Global Centre for Risk and Innovation (GCRI) applies these principles in its own work, including Foundry, and studies how institutions apply them to what they adopt. The principles, their use and their limits are below. Part of innovation and technological change.

Make an enquiry Back to Innovation and technological change
01Register

Responsible technology on the record.

The Global Centre for Risk and Innovation
  1. 01InstitutionThe Global Centre for Risk and Innovation (GCRI)
  2. 02Five principlesWhat responsible technology asks for
  3. 03InstrumentsThe instruments that give the principles their content
  4. 04GCRI’s partApplying the principles inside the programme, and reporting where they fall short
  5. 05In GCRI’s own workHow the principles apply inside the programme
  6. 06LimitsPrinciples are not a certificate
  7. 07SourcesWhere this page’s references lead
02Five principles

What responsible technology asks for.

Safety

Tested before trusted

Systems are evaluated in controlled conditions with stop rules before they touch real services.

Oversight

Humans decide

Consequential decisions stay with accountable people, and analysis is never presented as the decision.

Rights

Privacy and consent

Personal data and protected knowledge are used only with a lawful basis, a stated purpose and consent where required.

  • Social outcomes: who benefits, who bears the risk and who is left out are part of every evaluation
  • Accessibility: interfaces and outputs are designed so that people with disabilities can use them
03Instruments

The instruments that give the principles their content.

PrincipleInstrument it draws onWhat it requires in practice
Human rightsUN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (2011); Council of Europe AI convention (2024)Human rights due diligence before and during deployment
Human oversightEU AI Act provisions on human oversight of high-risk systems; UNESCO Recommendation (2021)A named person able to understand, override and stop the system
Risk managementNIST AI RMF 1.0 (2023) and its Generative AI Profile (2024); ISO/IEC 42001:2023Documented mapping, measurement and management of AI risks
AccessibilityWCAG 2.2 (W3C, 2023)Interfaces usable by people with disabilities, tested with them
Biosafety and biosecurityWHO guidance framework (2022); Biological Weapons ConventionRisk assessment of dual-use research before it starts
04GCRI’s part

Applying the principles inside the programme, and reporting where they fall short.

GCRI applies these instruments to its own systems, including Foundry, and reports gaps it finds in its own practice. Lessons are designed for the Exponential Technology series; AI components used in the programme would carry model cards and dataset sheets under NS-12 of the proposed Nexus Standards. Anyone can report a concern about how a GCRI system treats people, without an account.

05In GCRI’s own work

How the principles apply inside the programme.

  1. 01

    Evidence labels

    Every result says whether it is observed, modelled, a scenario or expert judgement, so automated outputs cannot pass as observation.

  2. 02

    Controlled exercises

    Simulated warnings never reach live audiences, and real infrastructure is never an unapproved target.

  3. 03

    Release is not deployment

    A tested configuration is not authorisation to use it in operation; that decision belongs to the operator or authority.

  4. 04

    Correction and challenge

    Anyone can challenge a public finding, as set out under scientific and editorial integrity.

06Limits

Principles are not a certificate.

GCRI does not certify that a technology is responsible, safe or compliant with any law or standard. It publishes evaluations with their scope and limits. The Global Risks Forum (GRF) examines how institutions govern AI and digital systems under digital and AI governance. GCRI’s own data handling is under data and privacy responsibilities. See also technology assessment.

07Sources

Where this page’s references lead.

The bodies and documents this page is read against. Status and editions change; each link goes to the issuing body.

08Questions

Questions and answers.

Does GCRI follow a particular AI framework?
GCRI applies the principles on this page in its own work and refers to recognised frameworks as named references. It does not claim compliance with any framework without an assessment record.
Can GCRI review my organisation’s AI system?
Organisations can propose a scoped evaluation through the technology provider or operator routes. Any evaluation has a documented plan and is never presented as certification.
What does human oversight mean in practice?
That a named, accountable person makes consequential decisions, can understand the basis for a system’s output and can stop or override it.
How is accessibility handled on GCRI sites?
GCRI sites are designed to meet WCAG 2.2 level AA. Pages are tested, barriers found are fixed and anyone can report a barrier.
ReportsContribute

Contribute evidence from this page.

Reports is the Consortium’s quarterly publication. What you know about this subject can become evidence, a case or a correction in the next edition, credited to you and published under CC BY 4.0 where it is your own work.

GCRI

Never send personal data, sensitive infrastructure detail or anything you have no right to share. A contribution is reviewed before use; sending it confers no authorship or editorial rights, and sponsorship never buys a finding.

The Global Centre for Risk and Innovation

Bring a method, a dataset or a question.

Information and enquiries are open today. An enquiry receives a reference and names the next step; applications, payments, compute allocations and registrations open only when their team, terms and review capacity exist.

Propose a method See all contact routes
Legal

Maps, data and figures on this site are shown for context and general information. They are not advice, forecasts or warnings; the limits of the information are set out in the Disclaimers and Data Notices.

Privacy choices