Glossary term
Glossary term
Governance and Compliance
Clear ownership for AI-related decisions and outcomes. Accountability means named roles, documented approvals, traceable decisions, and escalation paths when an AI system creates risk, harm, or uncertainty. Accountability should survive handoffs between product, data science, security, legal, privacy, procurement, and operations.
In Moffatt v. Air Canada (2024), the British Columbia Civil Resolution Tribunal rejected the airline's defence that its chatbot was a separate legal entity and held the airline accountable for the bot's hallucinated bereavement fare policy.
The Dutch SyRI welfare fraud detection system was struck down by The Hague District Court in 2020, with the court ruling that the Dutch government remained accountable despite outsourcing the algorithmic system.
Under Article 26 of the EU AI Act, deployers of high-risk AI systems must designate a natural person with competence, training, and authority to oversee the system, creating named accountability.