Standards Body · Foundational source, public edition · Released July 17, 2026
Canonical record: https://standardsbody.ai/library/foundational-source/terminology/
Standards Body is an independent research and institutional-design project. It is not currently a regulator, accreditation body, certification body, or governmental authority. This document is research; it is not an adopted standard.
Project: Standards Body
Primary domain: standardsbody.ai
Core line: Foundations for Frontier AI
Document type: Canonical controlled vocabulary and terminology standard
Version: 1.0
Status: Approved foundational source
Document owner: Standards Body
Applies to: All canonical files, website copy, research outputs, evaluation protocols, standards proposals, institutional documents, partnerships, public statements, diagrams, templates, registries, and contributor materials
Review cycle: Annual review, with event-triggered revision after material changes in project identity, evaluation science, assurance practice, standards, law, interoperability, or institutional structure
This document establishes the canonical terminology of Standards Body.
It is the authoritative source for:
This document exists because unclear terminology creates real institutional failure.
When terms such as evaluation, audit, certification, accreditation, approval, safety, capability, risk, threshold, and standard are used imprecisely, readers may misunderstand:
Standards Body uses controlled terminology to make these distinctions explicit.
Where another Standards Body document conflicts with this file on terminology, this file governs unless a specialized approved standard expressly defines a narrower domain-specific term.
Use the most accurate term, even when a more familiar term would sound simpler or more impressive.
Terms should describe the actual function performed.
They should not be selected to make a project, process, organization, or result appear more authoritative.
Every important term should be interpreted within a stated scope.
Examples:
Words implying certainty should match the quality and limits of the evidence.
Use regulator, accreditation body, certification body, standards organization, and related labels only when the organization actually performs that function under a legitimate mandate.
Terms used in protocols, standards, and schemas should be versioned when their meaning changes materially.
Definitions should be understandable without removing distinctions necessary for institutional accuracy.
The vocabulary should maintain a stable common core while allowing domain-specific extensions.
Two terms should not be treated as interchangeable merely because ordinary language uses them similarly.
Different institutions may use different labels for substantially similar concepts.
Mappings should identify when the difference is linguistic rather than substantive.
Every controlled term may receive one of the following statuses.
The default Standards Body term.
Permitted where context makes the meaning clear, but not preferred for canonical use.
Permitted only in a defined technical, legal, standards, or institutional context.
Avoid because it is ambiguous, misleading, overly broad, or likely to imply unsupported authority.
Do not use in Standards Body materials except when quoting or analyzing another source.
Previously accepted but replaced by a clearer term.
No longer used for current work but retained in historical records.
Canonical entries may include:
Not every entry requires every field.
Status: Preferred proper name
Definition: The independent research and institutional-design project developing foundations for frontier AI evaluation, assurance, standards, and governance.
Usage note: Always capitalize both words when referring to the project.
Do not use as: A generic substitute for every standards organization.
Authority note: The name does not imply present regulatory, accreditation, certification, or governmental authority.
Status: Preferred core line
Definition: The canonical line describing the project's focus on the intellectual and institutional foundations required for credible frontier AI evaluation and standards.
Status: Preferred for present institutional stage
Definition: The current Standards Body research and institutional-design effort.
Use when: Describing current status.
Do not confuse with: A formally recognized standards organization, regulator, or certification authority.
Status: Context-specific
Definition: An enduring organization, system of rules, or arrangement that coordinates roles, authority, incentives, and behavior.
Usage note: Standards Body may study future institutional forms without claiming that all such functions presently exist.
Status: Preferred
Definition: The deliberate design of roles, authority, governance, incentives, procedures, accountability, and relationships within or among institutions.
Status: Preferred
Definition: The governance, standards processes, assurance systems, registries, contributor structures, transparency rules, and other durable arrangements that support repeatable institutional work.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A commitment to improving evidence, accountability, beneficial development, public decision quality, and institutional legitimacy beyond the interests of any one company, government, or professional group.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A project whose conclusions and public positions are not controlled by a developer, evaluator, funder, political party, government, or other outside institution.
Usage note: Independence is multidimensional and should be supported by governance, funding disclosure, and publication rights.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Legitimate power to make, enforce, recognize, or decide within a defined scope.
Usage note: Authority may be legal, contractual, organizational, technical, or procedural. The source and scope should be stated.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A documented assignment of purpose, scope, authority, responsibility, and limits.
Status: Preferred
Definition: The legal, geographic, organizational, or institutional domain within which an authority or requirement applies.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A statement intended for or reasonably available to the public concerning a system, organization, evaluation, capability, safeguard, standard, or institutional status.
Status: Preferred
Definition: The authoritative Standards Body document governing a defined subject unless formally superseded.
Status: Accepted
Definition: The designated authoritative record for a defined set of information.
Usage note: Prefer canonical source in formal governance language.
Status: Preferred status label
Definition: A substantive research document intended for review and revision that does not itself establish a standard or binding requirement.
Status: Preferred status label
Definition: A developed, versioned Standards Body paper that serves as the current authoritative project position on a foundational subject while remaining revisable.
Status: Preferred status label
Definition: A canonical document approved to govern a foundational project area such as identity, terminology, evidence, or governance.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Machine-based systems capable of producing outputs such as predictions, recommendations, classifications, content, decisions, or actions in pursuit of explicit or implicit objectives.
Usage note: Avoid treating artificial intelligence as one homogeneous technology.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A computational model whose learned parameters or structured logic produce outputs from inputs.
Do not confuse with: An AI system, which may include prompts, tools, retrieval, interfaces, policies, monitoring, and human processes.
Status: Preferred
Definition: The complete operational arrangement through which an AI model is configured, accessed, integrated, monitored, and used.
An AI system may include:
Status: Preferred but scope-sensitive
Definition: AI models or systems at or near the leading edge of broadly relevant capability, scale, autonomy, or strategic significance.
Usage note: The term does not imply that every frontier system is high risk.
Status: Preferred but scope-sensitive
Definition: A model at or near the leading edge of relevant capability or scale at a stated time.
Usage note: A model may cease to be frontier as the field changes.
Status: Preferred
Definition: An AI system incorporating one or more frontier models or capabilities and whose behavior depends materially on system configuration and deployment context.
Status: Context-specific
Definition: A model designed or capable of performing a wide range of distinct tasks across domains.
Usage note: Legal definitions may vary by jurisdiction and should be quoted precisely when relevant.
Status: Accepted
Definition: A comparatively capable or complex AI system.
Usage note: Less precise than frontier AI system. Use only when the broader term is intended.
Status: Accepted
Definition: A model trained on broad data and adaptable to many downstream tasks.
Usage note: Do not treat foundation model and frontier model as synonyms.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A model whose learned weights are made available under specified access and license conditions.
Do not confuse with: Fully open-source software or a model with fully disclosed training data and methods.
Status: Context-specific
Definition: AI software, models, data, or infrastructure made available under recognized open-source or open-use conditions.
Usage note: State which components are open.
Status: Accepted
Definition: A model whose weights or material internal components are not publicly available.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A set of related models sharing lineage, architecture, training approach, or product identity.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A distinct identified release, checkpoint, or deployed state of a model.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A distinct identified state of the full AI system, including material configuration and deployment components.
Status: Preferred technical term
Definition: A saved state of model parameters at a particular point in training or development.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Additional training that modifies a pretrained model for a task, behavior, domain, or preference.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Training or adaptation performed after base pretraining, including instruction tuning, preference optimization, safety tuning, or domain adaptation.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A high-priority instruction or context provided to a model as part of system configuration.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Software, prompts, tools, memory, planning loops, agents, or other structure added around a model to support task performance.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Model interaction with external software, APIs, environments, instruments, or information sources.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Generation supported by retrieving external information and providing it to the model.
Status: Context-specific
Definition: An AI system or configuration that selects and executes actions over multiple steps in pursuit of an objective.
Usage note: Do not assume autonomy, persistence, or independent agency beyond the specified design.
Status: Preferred
Definition: An AI system that plans, acts, observes outcomes, and adapts over multiple steps with some degree of operational autonomy.
Status: Preferred
Definition: The degree to which a system can select, sequence, and execute actions without direct human instruction at each step.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Making a model or system available for operational use in a defined environment.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Making a model, system, weights, code, or access mechanism available to a defined audience.
Status: Context-specific
Definition: Release under access conditions permitting broad public use or redistribution.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A defined level of model or system access with specified permissions, restrictions, identity requirements, or safeguards.
Status: Preferred
Definition: The users, environment, permissions, integrations, scale, purpose, and institutional conditions under which an AI system operates.
Status: Preferred
Definition: The ability of a model or system to perform a defined task or class of tasks under specified conditions.
Usage note: Capability claims should state the system, conditions, resources, tools, time, and success criteria.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A capability supported by observed performance under stated evaluation conditions.
Status: Preferred but uncertain
Definition: A capability that may exist in the model or system but has not been reliably elicited or demonstrated under available conditions.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Capability available in practical use after accounting for access, scaffolding, reliability, cost, time, safeguards, and deployment constraints.
Status: Accepted
Definition: A capability that may emerge under plausible improvements in elicitation, scaffolding, fine-tuning, tools, or system configuration.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A field or class of activity in which capability is evaluated.
Examples:
Status: Preferred
Definition: A defined degree of capability within a domain or task framework.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A multidimensional description of a system's capabilities across tasks, conditions, reliability, cost, autonomy, and limits.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A structured representation of related capabilities, prerequisites, task families, and progression within a domain.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A defined boundary in capability evidence used to trigger additional review, safeguards, governance, or other action.
Usage note: A threshold should not be treated as a natural law. It is an institutional decision rule supported by evidence.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A capability whose credible possession or availability may create severe, strategic, systemic, or difficult-to-reverse consequences.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A capability relevant to decisions with substantial potential harm, public consequence, strategic significance, or institutional importance.
Status: Context-specific
Definition: A capability that materially enables harmful activity under a stated threat model.
Usage note: Use with a defined domain and actor model.
Status: Preferred
Definition: The increase in task performance, speed, reach, reliability, or sophistication attributable to use of an AI system.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Improvement in human performance resulting from AI assistance.
Status: Context-specific
Definition: Performance exceeding a specified human reference group under comparable conditions.
Usage note: The human reference group and conditions must be stated.
Status: Preferred
Definition: The ability to perform on relevant cases beyond the specific examples used in development or visible evaluation.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Application of learned capability from one task, domain, or context to another.
Status: Preferred
Definition: The consistency with which a system achieves the intended outcome under stated conditions.
Status: Preferred
Definition: The ability to maintain acceptable performance or behavior under variation, disturbance, attack, distribution shift, or uncertainty.
Status: Preferred
Definition: The duration, number of steps, complexity, or dependency depth of a task.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A defined degree of independent planning, action, persistence, or control within a system.
Status: Preferred
Definition: The combination of the likelihood and consequence of an adverse outcome under a defined context.
Usage note: Capability is not identical to risk.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A source or condition with the potential to cause harm.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Adverse effect on people, institutions, rights, systems, property, security, the environment, or public welfare.
Status: Preferred
Definition: The realized or reasonably expected consequence of an event, capability, deployment, or decision.
Status: Preferred
Definition: The outcome or effect that follows from an event, action, system behavior, or decision.
Status: Preferred
Definition: The magnitude of harm or consequence.
Status: Preferred
Definition: The estimated probability or plausibility of an event or outcome within a stated period and context.
Status: Preferred
Definition: The degree to which people, systems, assets, or institutions are subject to a hazard.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A weakness that can be exploited or activated to produce adverse effects.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A potential cause of an unwanted incident, including an actor, event, condition, or capability.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A person, group, organization, or state capable of intentionally causing harm.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A structured description of relevant actors, goals, capabilities, access, constraints, attack paths, and protected assets.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Use of an AI system for a harmful, prohibited, deceptive, or unintended purpose.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Harm arising without an actor's deliberate intention to cause that harm.
Status: Preferred but scope-sensitive
Definition: Risk capable of producing broad, interconnected, or cascading effects across systems, sectors, markets, institutions, or populations.
Status: Context-specific
Definition: Risk involving exceptionally severe harm at large scale.
Usage note: Use only with explicit scope, pathway, and evidence. Avoid rhetorical use.
Status: Context-specific
Definition: Risk threatening the long-term survival or potential of humanity.
Usage note: Use only where directly relevant and carefully supported. It is not a synonym for high-stakes risk.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Risk relevant to decisions where error could produce substantial, severe, strategic, or difficult-to-reverse consequences.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Risk remaining after controls or safeguards are applied.
Status: Preferred
Definition: The degree of risk an institution is prepared to accept within a defined context.
Status: Context-specific
Definition: The broad amount and type of risk an organization is willing to pursue or retain.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A defined boundary at which a risk response, escalation, or decision is triggered.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A measurable signal associated with a change in risk.
Status: Preferred but highly bounded
Definition: Freedom from unacceptable risk within a defined system, context, period, and set of assumptions.
Usage note: Do not use safe as an absolute system label.
Status: Discouraged
Reason: Too broad and likely to imply universal assurance.
Preferred alternatives:
Status: Accepted but broad
Definition: The field concerned with reducing unacceptable risks and harms associated with AI systems.
Usage note: State the relevant safety domain where possible.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Protection against unauthorized access, compromise, misuse, interference, theft, disruption, or disclosure.
Status: Accepted phrase
Usage note: Do not collapse reliability, security, robustness, and safety into one measure.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A technical, procedural, organizational, contractual, or institutional measure intended to reduce risk.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A measure that modifies risk, supports conformity, or governs system behavior.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Action taken to reduce the likelihood or consequence of harm.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A control intended to prevent an adverse event.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A control intended to identify an event, deviation, or failure.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A control intended to contain, remediate, or recover from failure.
Status: Preferred
Definition: An alternative control used when the primary control is unavailable or insufficient.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Use of multiple, independent or partially independent controls so that failure of one does not determine the entire outcome.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A model or system response declining to perform a requested action.
Usage note: Refusal rate is not a complete measure of safeguard quality.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A mechanism governing who or what can access a system, model, capability, tool, or information asset.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A restriction on the frequency or quantity of permitted requests or actions.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Ongoing observation and analysis of system behavior, use, conditions, or controls.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Human review, intervention, supervision, or decision authority over an AI system.
Status: Context-specific
Definition: A human participates directly in an operational decision or process step.
Usage note: Do not use as a vague assurance claim. State what the human can see and do.
Status: Context-specific
Definition: A human supervises an automated process and may intervene.
Status: Context-specific
Definition: Human authority remains responsible for the system's objectives, deployment, and ultimate decisions.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Reversion to a prior system state, configuration, or release.
Status: Discouraged
Reason: Often implies a simple universal shutdown mechanism where none exists.
Preferred alternatives:
Status: Preferred
Definition: Limiting the spread, access, effect, or persistence of an adverse condition.
Status: Preferred
Definition: The degree to which a safeguard reduces risk under a stated threat model and set of conditions.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A structured process for producing and interpreting evidence about a model, system, method, process, control, or claim.
Usage note: Evaluation includes more than executing tasks. It includes design, administration, scoring, analysis, interpretation, and limitations.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A defined procedure used to observe or measure one or more characteristics.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Execution of one or more tests according to a specified procedure.
Do not confuse with: Evaluation, which includes interpretation and decision context.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A single question, task, scenario, case, prompt, or challenge administered within an evaluation.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A defined activity the model or system is asked to complete.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A group of tasks measuring related aspects of a capability or construct.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A structured situation describing context, actors, objectives, constraints, and events for evaluation or analysis.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A standardized set of tasks, procedures, and metrics used to compare performance.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A benchmark whose tasks, data, or procedures are publicly available.
Status: Preferred
Definition: An evaluation using protected tasks, data, environments, scoring elements, or combinations not available to the evaluated party before administration.
Status: Accepted
Definition: A benchmark whose content is not publicly available.
Usage note: Prefer held-out evaluation when protection and evidentiary purpose are central.
Status: Discouraged
Reason: Informal and may imply arbitrary secrecy.
Preferred alternative: Held-out evaluation or protected evaluation material.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A versioned evaluation system designed to change as models, threats, tasks, evidence, and measurement limits change.
Status: Preferred
Definition: An evaluation whose tasks, methods, and scoring remain fixed during a defined period.
Status: Preferred
Definition: The complete versioned specification governing evaluation purpose, scope, tasks, administration, configuration, scoring, analysis, security, reporting, and change control.
Status: Preferred
Definition: The operational instructions for executing a particular test.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Software and infrastructure used to administer tasks, connect models, record outputs, score results, and preserve metadata.
Status: Preferred
Definition: The technical or simulated setting in which a model or system performs evaluation tasks.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A maintained environment used to support comparable evaluation across systems or institutions.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A defined collection of related tests or task families.
Status: Preferred
Definition: One execution of an evaluation or part of an evaluation under identified conditions.
Status: Preferred
Definition: One attempt at a test item or task.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Independent or repeated execution intended to determine whether a result can be reproduced under stated conditions.
Status: Accepted
Definition: Recreating a result using the same or materially equivalent methods and artifacts.
Usage note: Distinguish replication from exact rerun where necessary.
Status: Preferred assurance term
Definition: Independent execution of a procedure to verify reported work.
Status: Preferred but context-sensitive
Definition: Confirmation that a method, model, process, or requirement is suitable for its intended use.
Status: Preferred but context-sensitive
Definition: Confirmation through objective evidence that specified requirements have been fulfilled.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A condition in which benchmark performance becomes too high or compressed to distinguish meaningful capability differences.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Exposure of evaluation content, answers, or materially similar examples to model training, development, or preparation in a way that weakens the evidentiary value of the result.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Unauthorized or unintended disclosure of protected evaluation material or information.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Excessive adaptation to a limited dataset, benchmark, or evaluation condition at the expense of generalization.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Optimization for benchmark performance in a way that does not produce corresponding improvement in the underlying construct.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Strategic behavior by an organization, evaluator, developer, or system that improves the reported result without achieving the intended evaluation objective.
Status: Context-specific
Definition: Deliberate underperformance or concealment of capability.
Usage note: Do not infer sandbagging from low performance alone.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A system's ability to recognize or infer that it is being evaluated.
Status: Preferred
Definition: The degree to which evaluation design, administration, security, scoring, evidence, and reporting preserve the intended meaning of the result.
Status: Preferred
Definition: The underlying concept or attribute an evaluation intends to measure.
Status: Preferred
Definition: The degree to which an evaluation meaningfully measures the intended construct.
Status: Preferred
Definition: The degree to which evaluation content adequately represents the relevant domain.
Status: Preferred
Definition: The degree to which evaluation results correspond with an external outcome or reference.
Status: Preferred
Definition: The degree to which evaluation conditions reflect relevant real-world contexts.
Status: Preferred
Definition: The degree to which observed results support the claimed causal or comparative interpretation within the study.
Status: Preferred
Definition: The degree to which findings generalize beyond the assessed sample, setting, or conditions.
Status: Preferred
Definition: The consistency of a measurement process across repetitions, items, raters, or conditions.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A defined quantitative or categorical measure.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A value assigned according to a defined scoring procedure.
Status: Preferred
Definition: The method used to convert outputs or observations into scores.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Structured criteria used to judge or classify performance.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A defined boundary used for classification, escalation, or decision.
Usage note: Always state what the threshold triggers.
Status: Context-specific
Definition: A score used to separate categories or decisions.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A reference level of performance or condition used for comparison.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Performance by a defined human reference group under stated conditions.
Status: Preferred
Definition: The population or category used as a comparison.
Status: Preferred
Definition: The degree of justified belief in a conclusion based on available evidence.
Usage note: Distinguish qualitative confidence from statistical confidence.
Status: Preferred statistical term
Definition: An interval estimated by a defined procedure that expresses statistical uncertainty around a parameter.
Status: Preferred
Definition: The degree and sources of incomplete knowledge concerning a measurement, result, interpretation, or future outcome.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Uncertainty associated with a measured or estimated value.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Uncertainty arising from limited knowledge, evidence, models, or understanding.
Status: Context-specific
Definition: Uncertainty arising from inherent variability or randomness.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Difference between an observed, estimated, recorded, or reported value and the relevant correct or reference value.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A positive finding when the relevant condition is absent.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A negative finding when the relevant condition is present.
Status: Preferred statistical term
Definition: The ability of a method to identify relevant positive cases or detect meaningful change.
Status: Preferred statistical term
Definition: The ability of a method to exclude relevant negative cases.
Status: Preferred
Definition: The degree to which stated probabilities or confidence levels correspond to observed frequencies or outcomes.
Status: Preferred
Definition: The ability of a metric or task to distinguish among relevant levels of performance.
Status: Preferred
Definition: The probability that a study or test will detect an effect of a specified size when it exists.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A subset selected from a broader population or task universe.
Status: Preferred
Definition: The broader set of relevant tasks that an evaluation sample is intended to represent.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A change between the data, tasks, users, or environment used in development or evaluation and those encountered later.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A combined score derived from multiple items, tasks, domains, or metrics.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A score combining different measures according to a defined method.
Usage note: Composite scores can conceal important tradeoffs and should be decomposable.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A scale indicating order without guaranteeing equal distance between levels.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Reduced ability to distinguish performance because results cluster near the maximum.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Reduced ability to distinguish performance because results cluster near the minimum.
Status: Preferred
Definition: The process of configuring prompts, tools, examples, scaffolds, resources, or procedures to reveal a model or system's available capability.
Status: Preferred
Definition: The time, compute, attempts, human effort, tools, and resources permitted for capability elicitation.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Providing instructions, examples, context, or questions to a model.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Prompting that includes a small number of examples.
Status: Context-specific
Definition: Intermediate reasoning text generated or requested during problem solving.
Usage note: Do not assume that visible chain-of-thought faithfully represents internal model reasoning.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Elicitation using tools or external systems.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Elicitation that uses additional training to reveal or improve performance.
Status: Preferred but should be specified
Definition: A documented attempt to obtain strong performance using reasonable available methods and resources.
Usage note: The phrase is incomplete without an elicitation budget and method description.
Status: Preferred
Definition: An estimate of the highest performance plausibly available under defined elicitation conditions.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Failure to reveal capability because the elicitation method, integration, tools, instructions, or resources were insufficient.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Information, observation, artifact, record, result, or testimony relevant to supporting or challenging a claim.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Evidence derived directly from the object, event, system, or process at issue.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Evidence supporting a claim through inference rather than direct observation.
Status: Preferred
Definition: An original source of data, law, standards text, evaluation results, institutional policy, or first-hand record.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A source interpreting, summarizing, or analyzing primary material.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A reasoned assessment by a qualified person based on relevant knowledge and evidence.
Status: Accepted
Definition: A conclusion or interpretation offered by an expert.
Usage note: Prefer expert judgment where a structured evidentiary process exists.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A proposition asserted to be true, supported, or justified.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A supported conclusion arising from evaluation, review, inspection, audit, or analysis.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A reasoned determination based on evidence and analysis.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A conclusion derived from evidence rather than directly observed.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A proposition accepted for purposes of analysis without full proof.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A testable proposed explanation or prediction.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A materially unresolved question requiring further evidence or analysis.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A missing body of evidence, method, understanding, or institutional capability.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Missing evidence necessary to support or resolve a defined claim.
Status: Preferred
Definition: The level, type, quality, and sufficiency of evidence required for a defined claim or decision.
Status: Context-specific
Definition: Responsibility to provide sufficient evidence for a claim or decision.
Status: Preferred
Definition: The combined strength, relevance, quality, consistency, and independence of available evidence.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Independent or distinct evidence supporting the same conclusion.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Use of multiple methods, sources, or perspectives to evaluate a claim.
Status: Preferred
Definition: The origin, history, custody, modification, and ownership of evidence or an artifact.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A documented record of possession, transfer, access, and handling of evidence or protected material.
Status: Preferred
Definition: The ability to connect a claim, result, decision, or artifact to its sources, methods, versions, and responsible parties.
Status: Preferred
Definition: The degree to which a result can be obtained again using the same or adequately specified data, code, methods, and conditions.
Status: Preferred
Definition: The degree to which a finding can be supported through an independent study or materially independent implementation.
Status: Preferred
Definition: The degree to which a claim can be meaningfully tested and potentially shown false.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A result that does not support the tested hypothesis, expected effect, or claimed capability.
Usage note: A negative result is not automatically evidence of absence.
Status: Preferred phrase
Definition: Lack of observed evidence supporting a claim.
Status: Preferred phrase
Definition: Evidence that meaningfully supports the conclusion that a condition is absent under stated bounds.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A concise description of how strongly a claim is supported and what uncertainty remains.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A defined qualitative or quantitative expression of confidence in a conclusion.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Structured examination of evidence, methods, reasoning, processes, or claims.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Review by people with relevant expertise who are peers in the relevant field or practice.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Review performed within the organization responsible for the work or claim.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Review performed by a person or organization outside the reviewed organization.
Usage note: External does not automatically mean independent.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Review by qualified people or institutions sufficiently free from controlling conflicts to form and communicate a genuine judgment.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Review focused on technical methods, evidence, systems, or results.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Review focused on design, validity, measurement, assumptions, and analysis.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Review focused on threats, vulnerabilities, controls, access, and information protection.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Review focused on authority, roles, conflicts, decisions, accountability, and institutional process.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Review focused on public consequences, affected parties, rights, access, distribution, and institutional legitimacy.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A group appointed to conduct or advise a review.
Status: Preferred
Definition: The person responsible for coordinating a review process and preserving procedural integrity.
Status: Preferred
Definition: The documented question, scope, authority, access, methods, outputs, constraints, and decision relationship of a review.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A supported conclusion produced through review.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A reasoned disagreement with the primary or majority conclusion.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A documented dissenting assessment issued alongside the principal review conclusion.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Opportunity for the reviewed party to respond to factual or procedural findings without obtaining veto power over the conclusion.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Review of a draft for factual error, misunderstood configuration, confidentiality, or security.
Usage note: It should not become conclusion negotiation.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Review of the quality, consistency, or validity of another review.
Status: Preferred
Definition: The degree to which reviewers can select methods, access evidence, interpret results, communicate findings, and resist improper influence.
Status: Preferred but criteria-dependent
Definition: A systematic, independent, and documented process for obtaining and evaluating evidence against defined criteria.
Usage note: Do not call every review an audit.
Status: Context-specific
Definition: An audit concerning an AI model, system, organization, process, control, or requirement.
Usage note: The criteria and scope must be stated.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Examination of a product, process, service, system, installation, or design and determination of conformity with specified or professional requirements.
Status: Accepted broad term
Definition: A structured process of determining characteristics, condition, performance, conformity, or risk.
Usage note: Prefer a more specific term where possible.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Confidence supported by evidence, review, and institutional process that a claim or requirement is sufficiently reliable for a defined purpose.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A structured engagement in which an independent practitioner evaluates evidence and provides a conclusion or defined findings.
Status: Context-specific
Definition: Assurance providing moderate confidence based on narrower evidence or procedures than reasonable assurance.
Status: Context-specific
Definition: A high but not absolute level of assurance supported by sufficiently extensive evidence and procedures.
Status: Prohibited as a practical claim
Reason: No evaluation or audit can eliminate all uncertainty.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Ongoing or repeated evidence collection, evaluation, monitoring, and review rather than a one-time assessment.
Status: Preferred conformity term
Definition: Issue of a statement, based on a decision following review, that fulfillment of specified requirements has been demonstrated.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Demonstration that specified requirements relating to a product, process, system, person, or body are fulfilled.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Assessment performed by the organization responsible for the object or claim.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Assessment performed by a party with a user, purchaser, contractual, or direct stakeholder interest.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Assessment performed by a body sufficiently independent of provider and immediate user interests to support an impartial judgment.
Status: Preferred
Definition: An organization or person performing an evaluation in a third-party role.
Status: Context-specific
Definition: A person qualified and authorized to perform an audit against defined criteria.
Usage note: Do not use as a prestige label for general evaluators.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A person or organization that designs, conducts, administers, interprets, or reviews an evaluation.
Status: Preferred
Definition: An organization or unit performing technical evaluation under controlled methods and quality systems.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A body performing conformity-assessment activities such as testing, inspection, certification, validation, or verification.
Status: Accepted abbreviation after first use
Definition: Conformity-assessment body.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A defined degree of review depth, evidence, access, independence, continuity, and confidence.
Status: Preferred
Definition: The exact claims, systems, versions, requirements, and period covered by an assurance conclusion.
Status: Preferred but strictly controlled
Definition: Third-party attestation that specified requirements have been fulfilled within a defined certification scheme.
Usage note: Certification does not mean universal safety or government approval.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A third-party body that conducts certification under a defined scheme.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A formal record of certification identifying the subject, scheme, scope, issuer, version, date, and validity.
Status: Preferred
Definition: The rules, procedures, governance, criteria, assessment methods, surveillance, claims, and responsibilities governing certification.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A controlled mark indicating certification under a defined scheme.
Status: Prohibited unless quoting another source
Reason: Certification is always against specified requirements and cannot establish universal safety.
Status: Preferred but strictly controlled
Definition: Independent recognition that a conformity-assessment body is competent and impartial to perform specified activities within a defined scope.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A body that performs accreditation.
Status: Preferred
Definition: The specific activities, methods, domains, systems, locations, and limits for which a body is recognized as competent.
Status: Context-specific
Definition: An evaluator accredited for a defined scope by a legitimate accreditation body.
Usage note: Never omit the scope.
Status: Prohibited as a legitimacy claim
Reason: Accreditation requires independent recognition.
Status: Discouraged
Preferred alternative: Evaluator qualification review or pilot recognition process.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Acceptance of evidence, competence, process, status, or decision for a defined purpose.
Status: Preferred
Definition: An arrangement through which participating institutions accept specified results, qualifications, certificates, or decisions issued under another recognized system.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Acceptance by one institution of another institution's evidence or status without reciprocal obligation.
Status: Preferred
Definition: The defined activities, evidence, domains, methods, or decisions covered by recognition.
Status: Discouraged unless authority is clear
Definition: Formal acceptance by an authorized body.
Usage note: State who approved what and under which authority.
Status: Prohibited for Standards Body's present work
Status: Context-specific
Definition: Public expression of support.
Usage note: Partnership, citation, or participation does not automatically imply endorsement.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A document established through a recognized process that provides rules, requirements, guidelines, characteristics, or common practices for repeated use.
Usage note: A standard may be voluntary.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A draft or candidate standard not yet approved through its governing process.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A standard specifying technical requirements, methods, measurements, interfaces, or performance characteristics.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A standard defining organizational requirements for establishing, operating, maintaining, and improving a management system.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A standard defining required outcomes or performance without necessarily prescribing the exact method.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A standard defining required procedures, controls, records, or workflows.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A standard defining how systems, data, protocols, or institutions interact.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A standard whose adoption is not legally required by default.
Status: Context-specific
Definition: A standard developed and approved through a recognized international standards process.
Usage note: Do not use merely because a document has global aspirations.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A standard developed through a process intended to balance relevant interests and resolve comments toward broad agreement.
Usage note: Consensus does not require unanimity.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A detailed description of technical, procedural, or functional requirements.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A specification focused on technical requirements or methods.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Nonbinding guidance describing a preferred method based on available evidence and professional judgment.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Advisory material explaining principles, interpretation, or implementation.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A structured set of concepts, functions, outcomes, or practices that supports consistent thinking and action while allowing adaptation.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A set of expected behaviors or commitments adopted voluntarily or recognized by an institution.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Operational guidance describing accepted ways to implement or satisfy expectations.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A condition that must be fulfilled within a defined context.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A requirement accepted through choice, contract, framework, membership, or certification scheme.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A requirement imposed through law, regulation, contract, or authorized institutional rule.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A requirement carrying enforceable legal, contractual, or organizational effect.
Status: Discouraged unless evidence is strong
Reason: Often used without proof that the practice is best.
Preferred alternatives:
Status: Accepted
Definition: A practice supported by relevant experience or evidence as useful or responsible.
Status: Preferred
Definition: The least condition that must be met within a scheme or rule.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A common foundational requirement applying across a defined class.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A requirement whose rigor, coverage, assurance, or consequence increases through defined stages or triggers.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A requirement organized into levels of increasing rigor or applicability.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A requirement specifying an outcome rather than one required method.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A requirement specifying a particular method, control, procedure, or design.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A requirement whose applicability or rigor varies according to risk.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A requirement triggered by demonstrated or reasonably anticipated capability.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A requirement triggered by deployment context, access, scale, autonomy, or use.
Status: Preferred legal term
Definition: Use of an external standard or document as part of a binding requirement.
Status: Preferred legal or scheme term
Definition: A presumption that compliance with a recognized standard provides evidence of compliance with a specified requirement.
Status: Preferred legal term
Definition: A provision offering defined protection or reduced exposure when specified practices are followed.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A controlled environment for testing innovations under oversight and defined conditions.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Staged introduction of a requirement across time, systems, actors, or risk tiers.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A provision causing a requirement or program to expire unless renewed.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A requirement that a rule, standard, or program be reassessed after a period or trigger event.
Status: Preferred but source-dependent
Definition: Fulfillment of applicable legal, regulatory, contractual, or organizational obligations.
Usage note: State the governing requirement.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Fulfillment of specified requirements.
Distinction: Conformity is broader and may apply to voluntary standards. Compliance often implies binding obligations.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Failure to fulfill a specified requirement.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Failure to fulfill an applicable binding obligation.
Status: Discouraged
Reason: Too broad. Compliance always depends on a defined requirement and jurisdiction.
Status: Context-specific
Usage note: Use only when a valid certification scheme assesses defined compliance requirements.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Structured review of adherence to a defined legal, contractual, policy, or framework requirement.
Status: Preferred critical term
Definition: Formal or documentary conformity without meaningful achievement of the underlying objective.
Status: Preferred critical term
Definition: Narrow completion of listed items without sufficient attention to actual effectiveness or context.
Status: Context-specific
Definition: A legal determination or opinion provided by a qualified legal authority or professional.
Usage note: Standards Body does not issue legal compliance opinions unless a formally qualified and authorized legal process exists.
Status: Preferred
Definition: The system of authority, roles, decisions, accountability, oversight, and control through which an organization or activity is directed.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A documented structure defining governance principles, roles, procedures, decisions, and accountability.
Status: Preferred
Definition: The body with formal authority to direct or oversee an organization or scheme.
Status: Context-specific
Definition: A formally constituted governing or oversight body.
Status: Preferred
Definition: The administrative and coordination function supporting governance, committees, records, and process.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A formally appointed group responsible for a defined area of work or decision.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A group formed to develop, analyze, or recommend work on a defined subject.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A committee responsible for technical standards, methods, or decisions.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A group providing advice without final decision authority unless expressly granted.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Authority to make a defined decision.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Obligation to explain, justify, and accept responsibility for decisions and outcomes.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Assigned duty to perform or ensure an activity.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Independent or supervisory observation and review of an activity, institution, or decision.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Assignment of authority or responsibility from one body to another.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Transfer of an issue or decision to a higher or different authority because of consequence, conflict, uncertainty, or defined trigger.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A formal request for review of a decision.
Status: Preferred
Definition: An expression of dissatisfaction or allegation concerning process, conduct, evidence, or outcome that requires documented handling.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Withdrawal from participation in a decision or review because of a conflict or other disqualifying condition.
Status: Preferred
Definition: The minimum participation required for a body to conduct official business.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Broad agreement characterized by resolution of substantial objections, without requiring unanimity.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Agreement of every eligible decision participant.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A decision supported by more than half of eligible votes under defined rules.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A documented position not adopted by the majority.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A time-sensitive decision made under a defined emergency process with limited scope and subsequent review.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Justified acceptance of an institution's role and decisions based on competence, process, participation, accountability, authority, and public purpose.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Distortion of an institution's decisions or agenda by a stakeholder, funder, industry, government, ideology, or professional group.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Sufficient freedom from controlling relationships or interests to form and communicate a genuine judgment.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Presence of objectivity and management of conflicts so that judgment is not improperly influenced.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Reliance on evidence and defined criteria rather than improper preference or interest.
Status: Discouraged when used as a universal institutional claim
Reason: Institutions and decisions always operate within values, mandates, and assumptions.
Preferred alternatives:
Status: Preferred
Definition: A relationship, incentive, obligation, or commitment that could impair, or reasonably appear to impair, impartial judgment.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A conflict significant enough to require disclosure, mitigation, role limitation, recusal, or exclusion.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A conflict arising from payment, investment, equity, grants, employment, or economic dependence.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A conflict arising from governance, ownership, institutional role, or reporting relationships.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A conflict arising from strong prior commitments, proprietary methods, public positions, or reputational stakes.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A conflict arising from party, government, national, or political interests.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Material influence over a reviewer by the reviewed organization, funder, professional community, government, or ideology.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Dependence on a client relationship that weakens willingness or ability to issue unfavorable findings.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Distortion of regulatory action toward the interests of regulated entities or other powerful stakeholders.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Communication of relevant information to defined recipients.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Documentation of relationships or interests relevant to impartiality.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Action to reduce the effect or appearance of a conflict.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A structured account of organizational, financial, methodological, informational, operational, publication, intellectual, political, and security independence.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Availability of sufficient information to understand relevant decisions, methods, interests, evidence, and limitations.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Lack of visibility into relevant methods, evidence, decisions, or system behavior.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Protection of information from unauthorized disclosure.
Status: Discouraged unless describing intentional concealment
Preferred alternatives:
Status: Preferred
Definition: Information available without access restriction.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Information available only under defined access and use conditions.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Nonpublic information protected by legal, contractual, security, privacy, or institutional duties.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Sensitive information subject to stronger access limitations than ordinary confidential material.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Removal or obscuring of information before disclosure.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A nontechnical or reduced-detail account of a finding or process suitable for public release.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A defined category governing who may access information and under what conditions.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Access principle limiting information to people whose role requires it.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Access principle granting only the minimum permissions necessary for a role or task.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Information whose creation or disclosure may materially increase risk.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Coordinated reporting and communication of vulnerabilities, incidents, or sensitive findings in a manner intended to support remediation and reduce harm.
Status: Preferred
Definition: The right to communicate findings subject to defined legal, security, and confidentiality constraints.
Status: Preferred critical term
Definition: Power to prevent publication of a finding.
Usage note: A reviewed party should not possess unrestricted publication veto over independent conclusions.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Protection of information confidentiality, integrity, and availability.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Protection of digital systems, networks, software, data, and services against unauthorized activity or disruption.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Protection of model weights, access, behavior, interfaces, and associated assets against theft, compromise, or misuse.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Protection of model weights from unauthorized access, theft, copying, or modification.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Evaluation performed under controls appropriate to the sensitivity of the model, tasks, evidence, and outputs.
Status: Context-specific
Definition: A controlled technical environment designed to isolate sensitive computation or data.
Status: Preferred technical term
Definition: An isolated environment limiting the effect of system actions.
Do not confuse with: Regulatory sandbox.
Status: Context-specific
Definition: Physical or logical separation from external networks.
Status: Preferred
Definition: The set of points through which a system may be attacked or compromised.
Status: Preferred
Definition: The exposed components, interfaces, permissions, and pathways available to an attacker.
Status: Preferred
Definition: An event compromising or threatening confidentiality, integrity, availability, access control, or system security.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A category governing protection, access, handling, and disclosure of information or assets.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Information with legitimate beneficial uses and plausible harmful uses.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Information about model capabilities, methods, or weaknesses whose disclosure may increase misuse or security risk.
Status: Preferred
Definition: An event or condition that caused, could have caused, or revealed material harm, failure, compromise, misuse, or loss of control.
Status: Preferred
Definition: An incident in which an AI model or system materially contributed to the event, condition, or consequence.
Status: Preferred
Definition: An incident involving unacceptable risk or harm related to system safety.
Status: Preferred
Definition: An event compromising evaluation validity, integrity, security, evidence, or interpretation.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Harmful or prohibited use of an AI system.
Status: Preferred
Definition: An event that could have caused material harm but did not, because of chance, detection, intervention, or incomplete progression.
Status: Accepted
Definition: An event producing harm or unacceptable effect.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Inability of a system, process, control, or institution to fulfill an intended function or requirement.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A specific way in which a system, process, control, or institution can fail.
Status: Preferred
Definition: An underlying cause or set of causes whose correction would materially reduce recurrence.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A condition that increased the likelihood or severity of an incident without being the sole cause.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Action taken to eliminate or reduce the cause of a detected failure or nonconformity.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Action taken to reduce the likelihood of a potential failure or incident.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Action taken to correct, contain, or repair a problem.
Status: Preferred
Definition: The organized process of detecting, assessing, containing, communicating, remediating, and learning from an incident.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A structured record of an incident, evidence, impact, response, and lessons.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A classification system for incident types, severity, causes, and effects.
Status: Preferred
Definition: The ability of distinct systems, protocols, organizations, or jurisdictions to exchange, interpret, and use information or evidence effectively.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Shared or mapped meaning among terms, classifications, and data elements.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Compatibility in data structure, format, encoding, and transmission.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Ability of technical systems, tools, APIs, schemas, and environments to work together.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Ability to interpret and compare measurements produced by different methods, task sets, or institutions.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Ability of institutions with different mandates and structures to coordinate and rely on one another's work.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Ability to map or coordinate evidence and requirements across legal systems while preserving jurisdictional authority.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Reduction of differences among requirements, methods, or standards.
Distinction: Interoperability can exist without full harmonization.
Status: Preferred
Definition: The degree to which systems, methods, or requirements can operate together without unacceptable conflict.
Status: Preferred
Definition: The degree to which results can be meaningfully compared.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A determination that different methods, requirements, or systems achieve sufficiently comparable outcomes for a defined purpose.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A structured mapping between terms, requirements, controls, classifications, or standards.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A mapping showing relationships among multiple vocabularies or classification systems.
Status: Preferred
Definition: An analysis connecting results across protocols, versions, languages, forms, or systems.
Status: Preferred
Definition: The stable shared elements used across multiple implementations or jurisdictions.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A documented addition or adaptation specific to a domain, language, jurisdiction, or institution.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Adaptation of a protocol, standard, or system to local language, law, culture, infrastructure, or professional practice.
Status: Preferred
Definition: The degree to which translation preserves the intended construct and interpretation.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Evaluation in which models, data, tasks, or evidence remain distributed while coordinated methods produce shared results.
Status: Preferred
Definition: The ability to reuse and interpret evidence across organizations, schemes, or jurisdictions.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Deterioration in the validity of a recognition arrangement after methods, standards, institutions, or systems change.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Accumulated cost created by incompatible terminology, formats, identifiers, protocols, and institutional arrangements.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A maintained authoritative or verified record of systems, protocols, evaluators, certificates, incidents, mappings, or recognition status.
Status: Accepted
Definition: A maintained list or record.
Usage note: Use registry for structured institutional systems.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A unique value used to identify a record.
Status: Preferred
Definition: An identifier intended to remain stable over time.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A unique identifier for a model artifact or release.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A unique identifier for a defined AI system configuration.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A unique identifier for an evaluation protocol and version.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A unique identifier for an evaluator organization or qualified unit.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A structured set of artifacts supporting a claim, review, certification, recognition, or decision.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A structured record identifying components, versions, configuration, provenance, and integrity information.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A manifest identifying the material components and configuration of an AI system.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A record protected by a digital signature or equivalent integrity mechanism.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A record indicating whether an item is current, expired, suspended, withdrawn, corrected, or superseded.
Status: Preferred
Definition: An identified state of a document, protocol, system, model, standard, or schema.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A version containing material changes that may break compatibility, alter meaning, change decisions, or require re-evaluation.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A version containing substantive but backward-compatible improvement.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A version containing corrections or clarifications without intended substantive change.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A documented change to a document, protocol, standard, or system.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A formally approved change to an existing document or rule.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A record of changes across versions.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A formal summary of document version, date, change type, and rationale.
Status: Preferred status
Definition: The active and applicable version or record.
Status: Preferred status
Definition: Work not yet approved for canonical use.
Status: Preferred status
Definition: Submitted for review or adoption but not yet approved.
Status: Preferred status
Definition: Formally accepted through the applicable process.
Status: Preferred status
Definition: In current operational use.
Status: Preferred status
Definition: No longer valid because its defined validity period ended.
Status: Preferred status
Definition: Temporarily inactive or invalid pending review, correction, or resolution.
Status: Preferred status
Definition: Formally removed from current use or recognition.
Status: Preferred status
Definition: Replaced by a newer approved version.
Status: Preferred status
Definition: Still available for transition or historical use but no longer preferred.
Status: Preferred status
Definition: Removed from active use after planned discontinuation.
Status: Preferred status
Definition: Preserved for historical or evidentiary purposes but not active.
Status: Preferred status
Definition: Modified to address error while preserving a visible correction record.
Status: Preferred status
Definition: Issued again after correction or formal update.
Status: Preferred
Definition: The date on which a version, decision, or requirement becomes applicable.
Status: Preferred
Definition: The date after which a version, result, certificate, or recognition is no longer valid unless renewed.
Status: Preferred
Definition: The scheduled date for reassessment.
Status: Context-specific
Definition: A result that meets the defined validity requirements for its stated purpose.
Usage note: Valid does not mean universally true.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A result still applicable to the identified system, protocol, configuration, and period.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A result whose validity period has ended.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A result replaced by a newer evaluation or interpretation.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A result modified after error identification, with the original and correction history preserved.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A result formally removed because of invalidity, serious error, conflict, compromise, or other material reason.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Evidence is insufficient to support a defined positive or negative conclusion.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A determination cannot be made within the available evidence, scope, or method.
Status: Preferred
Definition: The evaluation did not produce sufficient evidence that the claimed capability or condition was present under the tested conditions.
Distinction: Not demonstrated is not the same as absent.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Evidence supports the claim subject to stated limitations or conditions.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Evidence supports only part of the claim.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Available evidence sufficiently supports the claim within the stated scope.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Available evidence does not sufficiently support the claim.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A condition that changes the expected benefit, cost, status, opportunity, or consequence associated with behavior.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Motivation arising from interest, purpose, mastery, identity, or satisfaction inherent in the activity.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Motivation arising from external reward, sanction, status, access, or requirement.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Durable esteem or status granted by a relevant community or institution.
Status: Preferred, see Section 15
Additional meaning: Formal or informal acknowledgment of contribution, competence, or achievement.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Formal recognition granted under stated criteria.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A reward offered for achieving a defined objective.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A reward offered for identifying a specified vulnerability, failure, flaw, or contribution.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Funding provided to support research, infrastructure, training, public-interest work, or capacity.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Attribution of value to people or organizations responsible for a contribution.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Recognition for timely disclosure, correction, remediation, or withdrawal of invalid work.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Control of recognition systems by actors able to convert existing status into further authority or reward.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Decline in the meaning of a designation as awards, badges, certificates, or titles proliferate.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Degradation of a measure's value when it becomes a target for optimization.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Maximizing the measured reward while avoiding or undermining the intended goal.
Status: Preferred
Definition: Reduction of intrinsic or prosocial motivation after external rewards or controls are introduced.
Status: Preferred
Definition: A good whose benefits are broadly shared and difficult to restrict to paying contributors.
Status: Preferred
Definition: An actor that benefits from shared infrastructure or risk reduction without contributing proportionately.
Use:
Avoid unless precisely justified:
Do not use:
| Terms | Canonical distinction |
|---|---|
| Model vs system | A model is a learned computational component. A system includes configuration, tools, interfaces, safeguards, infrastructure, and operational context. |
| Capability vs risk | Capability is ability. Risk combines likelihood, consequence, exposure, actor, access, and safeguards. |
| Safety vs compliance | Safety concerns acceptable risk. Compliance concerns fulfillment of applicable obligations. |
| Test vs evaluation | A test is a procedure. Evaluation includes design, administration, scoring, interpretation, and limitations. |
| Benchmark vs protocol | A benchmark is a standardized comparison instrument. A protocol is the complete specification governing an evaluation. |
| Public benchmark vs held-out evaluation | A public benchmark is visible. A held-out evaluation protects material to preserve evidentiary value. |
| Review vs audit | Review examines evidence and reasoning. Audit is systematic, independent, documented, and criteria-based. |
| External vs independent | External means outside the organization. Independent means sufficiently free from controlling influence. |
| Assurance vs certification | Assurance is evidence-supported confidence. Certification is formal third-party attestation under a defined scheme. |
| Certification vs accreditation | Certification concerns conformity of a product, process, service, person, or management system. Accreditation recognizes the competence of the body performing conformity assessment. |
| Conformity vs compliance | Conformity is fulfillment of specified requirements. Compliance usually concerns binding legal, regulatory, or contractual obligations. |
| Standard vs requirement | A standard is a document or agreed framework. A requirement is a condition that must be fulfilled. |
| Voluntary vs nonbinding | Voluntary concerns adoption. A voluntarily adopted contract or scheme can create binding obligations. |
| Recognition vs approval | Recognition accepts evidence, competence, process, or status for a defined purpose. Approval is formal acceptance by an authorized body. |
| Validation vs verification | Validation asks whether something is suitable for intended use. Verification asks whether specified requirements were fulfilled. |
| Harm vs hazard | Harm is adverse effect. A hazard is a source or condition with potential to cause harm. |
| Safeguard vs guarantee | A safeguard reduces risk. It does not guarantee absence of harm. |
| Not demonstrated vs absent | Not demonstrated means evidence was insufficient under tested conditions. Absent is a stronger claim requiring evidence of absence. |
| Confidence vs certainty | Confidence expresses justified belief. Certainty implies no meaningful uncertainty. |
| Consensus vs unanimity | Consensus is broad agreement after addressing substantial objections. Unanimity requires agreement by all. |
| Transparency vs full disclosure | Transparency provides sufficient visibility. Full disclosure may be unsafe, unlawful, or unnecessary. |
| Interoperability vs uniformity | Interoperability supports exchange and use across differences. Uniformity requires sameness. |
| Equivalence vs comparability | Comparability allows meaningful comparison. Equivalence supports acceptance as sufficiently similar for a stated purpose. |
Capitalize:
Use lowercase for generic references:
Use title capitalization in headings:
Use lowercase in ordinary generic references:
Use AI after first use where clear.
Capitalize only at the start of a sentence or within a proper title.
Use exact uppercase filenames in code formatting:
PROJECT_IDENTITY.mdTERMINOLOGY.mdFOUNDATION_01_DYNAMIC_EVALUATION_PROTOCOLS.mdWrite the full term followed by the abbreviation in parentheses.
Example:
conformity-assessment body (CAB)
Do not abbreviate a term used only a few times.
Avoid abbreviations that can refer to multiple concepts without explicit definition.
Identifiers may use standardized abbreviations if defined in the applicable registry or schema.
Use:
Use:
Do not hyphenate AI as a prefix unless part of a longer compound requiring clarity.
Standards Body canonical documents should not use em dashes.
Use:
Use slashes sparingly.
Prefer explicit conjunctions when meaning matters.
Use quotation marks for:
Do not use quotation marks to signal vague skepticism.
A new canonical term should be introduced only when:
New terms should be reviewed by relevant technical and institutional experts.
Exploratory papers may use temporary terms if marked as provisional.
Do not create new terminology merely to brand ordinary concepts as proprietary.
A term should be revised when:
A material change to meaning requires:
Spelling, grammar, or clarification without meaning change may be treated as a patch.
Deprecated terms should identify:
Retired terms remain discoverable for historical interpretation.
Translate the concept, not only the literal word.
Terms such as:
may have jurisdiction-specific legal meanings.
A translated controlled vocabulary should record:
Where no exact equivalent exists, preserve the source term and explain the distinction.
Legal terms require qualified jurisdiction-specific review.
The canonical owner is Standards Body.
A future terminology steward or committee should:
Contributors may propose changes through a documented process.
Terminology decisions should consider:
Material unresolved disagreement should be recorded.
A misleading or harmful definition may be corrected through an expedited process followed by full review.
Before approving a term, ask:
Can the term be defined without circular language?
Is it materially different from related terms?
Does the term imply more evidence than is usually available?
Does it imply legal or institutional authority?
Can the term be used with explicit scope?
Would a reasonable reader misunderstand it?
Can it be mapped across jurisdictions and languages?
Can the term support a decision, record, protocol, or standard?
Is the term likely to remain useful as the field changes?
Is the term needed for precision rather than prestige?
| Term | Status | Preferred replacement or instruction |
|---|---|---|
| Safe AI | Discouraged | State the assessed requirement, risk level, or safeguard performance |
| Certified safe | Prohibited | Certified against named requirements within scope |
| AI approval | Discouraged | State the approving authority and exact decision |
| Official framework | Discouraged | Approved by named body, or published framework |
| Secret test | Discouraged | Held-out evaluation |
| AI watchdog | Discouraged for Standards Body | Independent research or oversight organization, as applicable |
| AI audit, without criteria | Discouraged | Name the audit criteria and scope |
| Accredited model | Prohibited | Models may be certified or assessed; bodies are accredited |
| Self-accredited | Prohibited | Internally qualified or independently reviewed |
| Validated safe | Prohibited | Validated for a defined intended use, or met defined safeguard criteria |
| Fully compliant | Discouraged | Compliant with named requirements as of a defined date |
| Unbiased model | Prohibited as an absolute claim | Evaluated for defined bias or disparity measures |
| Failsafe | Prohibited as an absolute claim | Fault-tolerant or protected by defined controls |
| Risk-free | Prohibited | Residual risk assessed as low under stated conditions |
| Proven harmless | Prohibited | No material harm observed under assessed conditions |
| Global consensus | Discouraged | State participating institutions and degree of agreement |
| Experts agree | Discouraged | Identify expert population, evidence, and dissent |
| Best practice | Discouraged | Recommended practice or current leading practice |
| Kill switch | Discouraged | Emergency shutdown, access revocation, or deployment suspension |
| Black box, without definition | Discouraged | State which information or access is unavailable |
| Hallucination, for every factual error | Discouraged | Unsupported output, fabrication, factual error, or confabulation, as applicable |
| Alignment, without object | Discouraged | State alignment with whose objective, values, policy, or intent |
| Responsible AI, without criteria | Discouraged | State the practices, framework, or responsibility at issue |
| Trustworthy AI, without evidence | Discouraged | State the assessed reliability, safety, security, transparency, or governance properties |
The following terms require special care because they are frequently used to imply more than they establish.
Always state:
Always state:
Always state the properties supporting trust.
Always state the perturbation, threat, shift, or condition.
Always state the threat model and scope.
Always state relevant relationships, access, funding, and authority.
Always state:
Always state the criteria, scope, period, and auditor.
Always state the scheme, requirements, issuer, subject, scope, and validity.
Always state the accreditation body and scope.
Always state the applicable requirement and jurisdiction.
Always state the relevant capability, time, or comparison basis where material.
Preferred:
The system demonstrated the defined cyber capability under Protocol CYBER-AGENT 1.2 with tool access, five attempts per task, and a 90-minute task limit.
Avoid:
The model is cyber-capable.
Preferred:
The evaluation did not demonstrate the capability under the tested conditions.
Avoid:
The model cannot perform the task.
Preferred:
The safeguard reduced attack success under the stated threat model, but adaptive attacks remained outside scope.
Avoid:
The safeguard makes the model safe.
Preferred:
The report received independent external review under a documented mandate with access to raw evaluation records.
Avoid:
Experts verified the report.
Preferred:
The organization underwent an independent audit against the specified control framework for the period stated.
Avoid:
The company was audited and approved.
Preferred:
The management system was certified against the named standard by the identified certification body within the published scope.
Avoid:
The AI was certified safe.
Preferred:
The evaluator is accredited for the listed testing scope by the named accreditation body.
Avoid:
The evaluator is officially accredited for AI.
Preferred:
Standards Body is an independent research and institutional-design project.
Avoid:
Standards Body is the official authority for frontier AI.
Preferred:
The result is recognized for the defined technical purpose under the named arrangement.
Avoid:
The result is globally approved.
Preferred:
The organization reported conformity with the named voluntary standard and compliance with the stated legal requirement as of the review date.
Avoid:
The organization is fully compliant.
This quick reference lists preferred terms and the sections containing full definitions.
PROJECT_IDENTITY.mdGoverns project identity, public role, authority, and approved descriptions.
EVIDENCE_STANDARDS.mdWill govern evidentiary sufficiency, source quality, confidence, citation, and claims.
RESEARCH_METHODOLOGY.mdWill govern how research questions, evidence, expert input, and correction are handled.
TAXONOMY.mdWill organize terms into formal categories and hierarchical relationships.
EVALUATION_PHILOSOPHY.mdWill govern Standards Body's conceptual approach to measurement, capability, risk, thresholds, and uncertainty.
GOVERNANCE_FRAMEWORK.mdWill govern formal roles, decision rights, committees, conflicts, appeals, and accountability.
STANDARDS_DEVELOPMENT_PROCESS.mdWill govern the use of draft, proposed, approved, standard, revision, and retired within standards work.
TRANSPARENCY_FRAMEWORK.mdWill govern disclosure levels, confidentiality, redaction, public summaries, and restricted evidence.
EVALUATOR_ACCREDITATION_FRAMEWORK.mdWill govern accreditation terminology within a formal evaluator-recognition system.
WEBSITE_SOURCE_OF_TRUTH.mdWill apply this terminology to exact public website language.
Standards Body commits to:
Frontier AI standards cannot be credible when the language supporting them is unstable.
A project cannot claim to build trustworthy evaluation while using:
These distinctions are not semantic formalities.
They determine what institutions believe, what the public understands, what purchasers rely upon, what regulators enforce, and what developers can claim.
Standards Body therefore treats terminology as foundational infrastructure.
The vocabulary should make every important claim answerable.
What was evaluated?
Which system?
Under which protocol?
By whom?
With what access?
Against which requirement?
Under which authority?
With what uncertainty?
For how long?
Within which jurisdiction?
The purpose of this file is not to make the project sound more technical.
It is to make the project harder to misunderstand.
The canonical rule is:
Use the term that matches the function, the evidence, the scope, and the authority actually present.
Date: July 16, 2026
Change type: Complete foundational edition
Summary: Establishes the canonical Standards Body controlled vocabulary. Defines project, AI system, capability, risk, safeguard, evaluation, measurement, elicitation, evidence, review, audit, assurance, certification, accreditation, standards, requirements, compliance, governance, independence, transparency, security, incidents, interoperability, registries, versioning, result status, incentives, public claims, usage distinctions, capitalization, abbreviations, hyphenation, term introduction, revision, translation, governance, quality tests, discouraged vocabulary, ambiguity controls, examples, alphabetical reference, file interfaces, and terminology commitments.
Status: Approved foundational source.