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Catastrophic-severity override

By Updated

The rule that any scenario rated at the top severity level is Critical whatever its likelihood, cannot be accepted by the delivery team, and must be eliminated, reduced in severity or accepted explicitly by the governing body for a fixed period. NIST asks that such risks can be ceased safely 1.

Developed in
ch. 13, The catastrophic-severity override
Chapters
ch. 13, Risk Management
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.

Sources

  1. [1] Artificial Intelligence Risk Management Framework (AI RMF 1.0), NIST AI 100-1 (risk tolerance and residual risk; seven trustworthy characteristics; transparency answers "what happened", explainability "how", interpretability "why"; MAP 1.1 intended purposes; MANAGE 1.1 go/no-go determination; profiles). NIST. 2023-01-26. https://doi.org/10.6028/NIST.AI.100-1 (verified: primary)

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

Cite this term

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

BibTeX

@misc{aige2026catastrophicseverityoverride,
  author  = {Jorge García Aibar},
  title   = {{Catastrophic-severity override}},
  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/catastrophic-severity-override}
}