---
title: "Negative space"
description: "The uses an AI system is explicitly not for, written into its Deployment Decision Record."
canonical: https://aigovernanceengineer.com/glossary/negative-space
author: "Jorge García Aibar"
license: "CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)"
doi: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22956197
version: "0.5.0"
updated: 2026-09-24
---

# Negative space

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](https://aigovernanceengineer.com/bok/governing-deployment#start-from-the-use-case-not-the-model)
- Chapters: [ch. 15, Deployment](https://aigovernanceengineer.com/bok/governing-deployment)
- In the glossary chapter: https://aigovernanceengineer.com/bok/glossary#t-negative-space

## Sources

Defined by this Body of Knowledge: the section it is developed in is the source.