Glossary term
Glossary term
Foundations
A machine-based system that, for explicit or implicit objectives, generates outputs such as predictions, content, recommendations, or decisions that can influence physical or digital environments. Governance should treat the AI system as the full socio-technical arrangement, not only the model. Data pipelines, prompts, interfaces, human review, integrations, logs, vendors, and downstream decisions all matter.
The COMPAS recidivism risk system used by US courts is an AI system that includes the scoring model, training datasets, intake questionnaires, court workflow integration, and judges interpreting scores.
GitHub Copilot is an AI system combining OpenAI Codex with the VS Code interface, telemetry pipelines, content filtering, license attribution layers, and enterprise policy controls.
The EU AI Act Article 3(1) defines an AI system as a machine-based system designed to operate with varying levels of autonomy, aligned with the OECD definition updated in November 2023.