Tokyo: The leaders of the Group of Seven advanced economies, including Japan, said Monday that they have agreed on international guiding principles for artificial intelligence developers and a related code of conduct for them.

The leaders issued a joint statement urging AI developers to abide by the guidelines, which list their responsibilities.

The guidelines are a “great achievement” for Japan as the chair of the G-7 this year, and are expected to “greatly advance international efforts” to establish AI-related rules, Japanese Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Hideki Murai told a press conference the same day.

At their summit in the western Japan city of Hiroshima in May, the G-7 leaders agreed to launch the Hiroshima AI Process initiative, under which the G-7 countries rushed to first develop guidelines for AI developers amid the rapid spread of the technology.

The guidelines and code of conduct each have 11 sections. They call for mitigating the risk of weapons development, publishing reports on AI capabilities, and reporting when issues occur. They also seek the development of digital watermarking technology that would allow users to identify AI-generated content.

In the statement, the G-7 leaders instructed their relevant ministers to accelerate work to create by the end of the year international guidelines that also cover AI users and service providers.

Japan plans to draw up domestic guidelines based on the international guidelines to be compiled this year.

JIJI Press