The New Landscape: Who Acts, With Whose Identity, Under Whose Decision

All courses / Landscape / Module 1 / Chapter 3

Learning objectives

After the lesson the participant can:

• Classify an AI use by usage mode, autonomy level and identity using the chapter's definitions.
• Distinguish a limit enforced by a policy point outside the model from a rule in an agent's instructions.
• Distinguish evidence from attestation with an example of each.
• Walk one AI use through the seven questions and record the answers.

Key concepts

Architecture as Code

Keeping the description of an organisation's systems as text files in version control, where every change is dated, attributed and reviewable, tests fail when description and reality disagree, and a broken rule stops a release. A document can say anything; a test can fail.

Usage mode

The way an organisation comes to use a model, one of six adopted from AI Governance, Chapter 2: Mode 0 Ambient AI, Mode 1 Conversational assistants, Mode 2 Embedded workplace assistants, Mode 3 Agentic work tools, Mode 4 Built AI applications and Mode 5 Autonomous production agents.

Policy point

The book's name for the policy decision point: a separate component outside the agent that checks every action the agent asks to take against a written list of what it may do, and refuses anything not on the list.

Evidence and attestation

In the words of AI Governance, Chapter 11, attestation is a person asserting that a control operated; evidence is a machine-generated artefact that demonstrates it. A contract clause is attestation; a log showing the system halting is evidence.

Seat and decision tier

The seat is where the notation draws the person who holds the decision right for a unit. Its tier is T1 operator or user, T2 system owner or architect, T3 an executive, T4 the board or an elected body; T0 means nobody is named.

Interactive exercises

Do them here and get feedback at once. Choose a card and then where it belongs, or drag it.

Teaching plan

Discussion

1. Both illustrative organisations carry the same grey square: Mode 0, Level 4 Autonomous, no policy point, no seat, no proof. Why is it identical in two organisations that differ in almost everything else?
2. The chapter says a name is necessary and not sufficient. What else would a named person need before the seat above a mark means that someone can actually decide?
3. Nordvik Region's citizen-service assistant sits at Level 4 Autonomous by choice. What about its actions makes that position defensible, and what change to the unit would make it indefensible?

Written exercise

Self-test

Choose an answer to see whether it is right, or open the answer below each question.

1. In the chapter's scene, what makes the third rule of Hansa Mutual's IT-operations agent, that it may never delete data, a limit and not a hope?

   1. The rule is written in clear words at the top of the agent's instructions and repeated in its playbook
   2. The supplier has confirmed the rule in a signed contract clause
   3. The agent has been evaluated and found never to have asked to delete data
   4. A separate component outside the agent checks every requested action and refuses the rest
   Show the answer

   D. A separate component outside the agent checks every requested action and refuses the rest
   The rule is not a sentence in the agent's instructions. A policy decision point outside the agent checks every action against a written list and refuses anything not on it. A rule enforced outside the agent limits what happens when a rule is broken.

2. Nordvik Region's internal staff assistant drafts a letter that a caseworker edits and sends under their own name. Which property defines this as AI beside people?

   1. It is built on a large language model
   2. It acts with the caseworker's login and permissions, so it can do nothing the caseworker could not do
   3. It serves about 3,200 staff, which places its reach in class L and makes it one of the Region's larger marks
   4. It is hosted by a European cloud provider, in the EEA only, with keys that the Region itself holds
   Show the answer

   B. It acts with the caseworker's login and permissions, so it can do nothing the caseworker could not do
   The defining property is identity. The assistant acted with the caseworker's login and permissions, saw only what the caseworker could see, and the trail leads to a person who chose to send.

3. In the scenario, Nordvik Region's first out-of-hours stop drill of the benefits-triage system takes 26 minutes against a budget of 15. What does the chapter conclude about the contract clause that required the stop?

   1. The clause was not false; it was a promise, which is attestation and not evidence
   2. The clause was false and the supplier was in breach of the tender
   3. The clause was evidence, because the supplier had accepted it in writing
   4. The clause was unnecessary, because caseworkers decide every case
   Show the answer

   A. The clause was not false; it was a promise, which is attestation and not evidence
   Until the first drill the requirement was a sentence everyone had agreed to and nobody had tested. The chapter says the clause was not false; it was a promise. A log showing the stop arriving and the system halting would be evidence.