These AI guidelines for parliaments not only promote responsible AI use but also empower parliaments to mitigate the risks of AI whilst leveraging AI’s potential to strengthen their functions and serve citizens better. They were developed by a technical working group of 22 expert parliamentary scholars and professionals from 16 countries.

Part 1 of the document - the introduction to the guidelines - describes AI and generative AI, and outlines why we need guidelines, the challenges of using AI in a parliamentary setting, and how AI could be used in parliaments.

Part 2 of the document contains the guidelines. Following a summary, the detailed guidelines are organised into six sections, covering a range of critical issues:

• ethical principles
• artificial general intelligence (AGI)
• privacy
• governance
• system design
• capacity building

Each of the 40 guidelines is presented in a structured format, aiming to address three main questions:

• Why does this guideline matter?
• Are there known examples of its implementation?
• How can this guideline be implemented?

Brief further considerations and recommendations are also included in each guideline.

Part 3 briefly outlines a way forward in the development of guidelines for AI in parliaments.

Part 4 contains a list of abbreviations, a glossary, and the bibliography.