Definition
Plain language
The U.S. government's voluntary checklist for managing risks from AI systems.
As stated in the literature
NIST AI Risk Management Framework: a non-binding set of govern/map/measure/manage functions for identifying and mitigating AI system risks across the lifecycle.
Also called: National Institute of Standards and Technology risk framework, NIST AI RMF
Why it matters: It gives organizations a shared vocabulary and process for AI risk even where no law compels them, which matters because voluntary frameworks often become the template for later rules.
For example, a team building a medical triage tool might use it to walk through who governs the system, what could go wrong, how they will measure those harms, and what they will do about them.
Heard on the show
“It’s in the National Institute of Standards and Technology risk framework.”Episode 251 — When a Fake Dashboard Makes an AI Agent Just as Confident