This article reports the findings of AI4People, an Atomium—EISMD initiative designed to lay the foundations for a “Good AI Society”. We introduce the core opportunities and risks of AI for society; present a synthesis of five ethical principles that should undergird its development and adoption; and offer 20 concrete recommendations—to assess, to develop, to incentivise, and to support good AI—which in some cases may be undertaken directly by national or supranational policy makers, while in others may be led by other stakeholders. If adopted, these recommendations would serve as a firm foundation for the establishment of a Good AI Society.

The group is grateful to New America Cybersecurity Initiative Fellow John Costello for comments that helped to improve the translation.

Italy and the United Kingdom. They will also help watchdogs and others to scrutinize such technologies.What do COVID-19 contact-tracing apps do? Running on a mobile phone, they inform people that they have spent time near someone with the virus. The contacts should then respond according to local rules, for example by isolating themselves. Prompt alerts are key because the incubation time of the virus is up to two weeks [1][2][3][4] .These digital interventions come at a price. Collecting sensitive personal data potentially threatens privacy, equality and fairness. Even if COVID-19 apps are temporary, rapidly rolling out tracing technologies runs the risk of creating permanent, vulnerable records of people's health, movements and social interactions, over which they have little control.More ethical oversight is essential. So far, such concerns have focused on rights to privacy (see go.nature.com/3e7jntx). Some governments have pledged to protect data privacy (see go.nature.com/3grwfe8). Apple and Google are developing a common interface to support apps that do not require central data storage (see Nature http://doi.org/dwc6; Protect privacy, equality and fairness in digital contact tracing with these key questions.Passengers on an underground train in Seoul. South Korea used contact tracing to great effect early in the pandemic.