AI Governance Engineer
GitHub

AI washing

By Updated

Overstating or inventing the use or capability of AI in marketing or investor communications. US regulators treat it as deception; the SEC settled charges against two investment advisers over such claims in March 2024 1.

Developed in
ch. 20, Unfair and deceptive practices in the United States
ch. 05, Pattern: Claims Substantiation Gate
Chapters
ch. 05, Patterns · ch. 20, Existing Law
Source
1 numbered reference, listed below

Where it is used

One chapter of the Body of Knowledge uses the term. Each link opens the first section that does.

AI washing: mentions per chapter1 mention of the term across 1 of the 23 chapters of the Body of Knowledge; the chapters the glossary cross-references are drawn solid.Cross-referenced chapterCross-referenced, not named05 Patterns020 Existing Law: 1 mention20 Existing Law1No mentions in the other 21 chaptersSource: the Body of Knowledgev0.5.0
AI washing: mentions per chapter1 mention of the term across 1 of the 23 chapters of the Body of Knowledge; the chapters the glossary cross-references are drawn solid.Cross-referenced chapterCross-referenced, not named0001020304050607081011121314151617181920 Existing Law: 1 mention120212223Source: the Body of Knowledge v0.5.0
Mentions per chapter How often each chapter names the term, with the chapters the glossary cross-references drawn solid. The longest bar is where to read the term in use; bars spread across many chapters mark a term that runs through the discipline.
Mentions as a table
Mentions of AI washing per chapter
ChapterMentionsCross-referenced
00 Preface0No
01 Definition0No
02 Why Now0No
03 Values & Principles0No
04 The Stack0No
05 Patterns0Yes
06 The Role0No
07 Maturity Model0No
08 Regulatory Map0No
10 Reading List0No
11 AI Defined0No
12 Governance Program0No
13 Risk Management0No
14 Development0No
15 Deployment0No
16 Fairness & XAI0No
17 Incidents0No
18 EU AI Act0No
19 Privacy & AI0No
20 Existing Law1Yes
21 AI Laws Worldwide0No
22 Principles & Standards0No
23 AI Agents0No
  • Claims register

    The record of every public statement about an AI system's accuracy, fairness, safety or capability: the exact wording, where it appears, and the eval run…

  • UDAP

    Unfair or deceptive acts or practices, prohibited by section 5 of the FTC Act and by state laws.

Sources

  1. [1] "SEC Charges Two Investment Advisers with Making False and Misleading Statements About Their Use of Artificial Intelligence" (Delphia and Global Predictions). US Securities and Exchange Commission. 2024-03-18. https://www.sec.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2024-36 (verified: primary)

Definitions of legal terms paraphrase the cited text, which governs. Dated statements are as of .

Cite this term

García Aibar, J. (2026). AI washing. In AI Governance Engineering: The Thesis & Body of Knowledge (v0.5.0), Glossary. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22956197. https://aigovernanceengineer.com/glossary/ai-washing. CC BY 4.0

BibTeX

@misc{aige2026aiwashing,
  author  = {Jorge García Aibar},
  title   = {{AI washing}},
  note    = {Glossary, AI Governance Engineering: The Thesis \& Body of Knowledge, version 0.5.0},
  year    = {2026},
  doi     = {10.5281/zenodo.22956197},
  url     = {https://aigovernanceengineer.com/glossary/ai-washing}
}