Understanding the Behaviors and Conditions to Diagnose the Risks Associated with AI Decision Making.
AI governance decision episode
A proximate decision episode where direction is about to lock, symbolic constraints are relied upon, and reversal would be costly, visible, or unsafe. Use this lens to surface where pressure concentrates, where leverage actually sits, and whether constraints can mechanically bind when conditions deteriorate.
A developmental automated driving system was deployed on public roads with safety constraints that proved insufficient under operational pressure. The resulting incident exposed exception-handling pathways where internal governance failed to bind, shifting durability of direction to external investigation and enforcement.
A deployed grading model with formal governance could not hold decision direction once results-day impacts became visible and legitimacy pressure spiked. The decision locus (DfE + Ofqual) reversed from calculated grades to centre assessment grades, indicating a ceiling breach where symbolic/operational constraints failed to bind under stress.
Governance guardrails established at acquisition relied on capital-structure conditions that did not persist post-closing. Once Preferred Shares were no longer in issue, investor-majority consent and veto mechanisms could not mechanically activate, leaving strategic direction governed by judgment rather than binding constraint.