Accountability (OECD)

The obligation for organizations deploying AI systems to establish clear responsibility chains and take responsibility for AI outcomes, including maintaining documentation, implementing corrective measures, and being subject to administrative or criminal liability for misconduct.

Accountability requires explicit governance structures and role‑based responsibilities (such as model owners, independent validators and board oversight), clear escalation channels, and mechanisms to ensure oversight and remedial action across the AIDA lifecycle.

The assignment of clear roles, accountable officers and governance structures (e.g., ethics committees) together with procedures for audit, redress, and escalation so that actors can be held responsible for design, deployment and harms arising from AI systems.

A central tenet, implying that the processes, inputs, and outputs of AI systems must be sufficiently documented and understandable to allow for scrutiny and attribution of responsibility.