Trustworthiness
Ethics, safety, transparency and fundamental-rights protections for AI.
How the laws define this
Regulators and standards bodies agree that trustworthiness requires an AI system to consistently deliver safety, privacy, and security while instilling stakeholder confidence and public trust through accountable, transparent performance. These frameworks consistently treat the term as a multi-faceted objective incorporating overlapping safeguards like reliability and risk management. Their primary divergence lies in whether trustworthiness is anchored in human rights and law or in technical operational controls. The Coordinated Plan on Artificial Intelligence (EU, 2021 review) defines it as a policy concept centered on ethical principles, lawful deployment, and respect for fundamental rights. In contrast, technical standards define it through system capabilities and operational mechanisms: ISO/IEC 22989:2022 focuses on the verifiable ability of a system to meet stakeholder expectations, while DKS 3007:2024 frames it as a composite quality established through organizational, technical, and lifecycle controls to enable controllability, explainability, and human oversight.
Synthesised from the 3 statutory definitions below. Each one is quoted in full, with its source.
Definitions (3)
A policy concept framing AI systems’ compliance with ethical principles, safety requirements, transparency, accountability, and respect for fundamental rights. The Plan promotes mainstreaming ethical guidelines, risk assessments, safety measures and transparency practices to build public trust and ensure lawful, rights-respecting AI deployment.
A composite quality of an AI system covering transparency, explainability, controllability, reliability, safety, security and privacy that enables appropriate human oversight and stakeholder confidence. The Code frames trustworthiness as the objective of organisational, technical and lifecycle controls to ensure predictable, accountable and acceptable AI behaviour.
The ability of an AI system to meet stakeholder expectations in a verifiable way, encompassing safety, security, privacy, and reliability.
Related Terms
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