AI Governance Engineer
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Negative space

By Updated

The uses an AI system is explicitly not for, written into its Deployment Decision Record. It sits inside the provider's intended purpose and makes function creep detectable, because an unapproved use has somewhere to be recorded as out of scope.

Developed in
ch. 15, Start from the use case, not the model
Chapters
ch. 15, Deployment
Source
Defined by this Body of Knowledge: the section it is developed in is the source

Where it is used

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

Patterns that use this term

2 pattern pages use the term, most mentions first.

  • Deployment Decision Record (DDR)

    The artefact that records the decision to deploy an AI system: objective, the people it acts on, negative space, risk tier and obligations, per-group…

  • Intended purpose

    The use for which the provider intends an AI system, including its specific context and conditions of use.

  • Function creep

    The gradual reuse of personal data or an AI system for purposes nobody approved, usually by configuration rather than a new release.

  • AI system

    For governance, the object the AI definition brings into scope.

  • Provider

    Under the EU AI Act, whoever develops an AI system or general-purpose AI model, or has one developed, and places it on the market or puts it into service…

Sources

No external source: the term is coined or used in a specific sense by this Body of Knowledge, and the section linked under "Developed in" is its source.

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

Cite this term

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

BibTeX

@misc{aige2026negativespace,
  author  = {Jorge García Aibar},
  title   = {{Negative space}},
  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/negative-space}
}