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Guidance and Templates for Public-Facing AI Documentation: An AI Standards “Zero Draft”

30 Jul 2026

ReadSource at nvlpubs.nist.gov ↗Read herePublic domain (US government work)

Outline · 54 pages

  1. 1 Scopep. 9
  2. 2 Terms and definitionsp. 9
  3. 3 Dimensions of potential outcomes of public-facing documentation processesp. 11
  4. 3.1 Generalp. 11
  5. 3.2 Process-driven outcome dimensionsp. 12
  6. 3.2.1 Organizational resource demandsp. 12
  7. 3.2.2 Internal collaborationp. 12
  8. 3.2.3 Internal decision-makingp. 12
  9. 3.2.4 Release speedp. 13
  10. 3.3 Artifact-driven outcome dimensionsp. 13
  11. 3.3.1 Reuse and integrationp. 13
  12. 3.3.1.1 Discoverability and searchabilityp. 13
  13. 3.3.1.2 Suitability assessmentsp. 13
  14. 3.3.1.3 Implementation and further developmentp. 14
  15. 3.3.2 Malicious use or attacksp. 14
  16. 3.4 Jointly driven outcome dimensionsp. 14
  17. 3.4.1 Accountabilityp. 14
  18. 3.4.2 Privacy preservationp. 14
  19. 3.4.3 Proprietary information protectionp. 15
  20. 3.4.4 Legal obligationsp. 15
  21. 3.4.5 Trustp. 15
  22. 4 Guidance on public-facing documentation processes and artifactsp. 15
  23. 4.1 Generalp. 15
  24. 4.2 Guidance on documentation artifactsp. 16
  25. 4.2.1 Artifact correctnessp. 16
  26. 4.2.2 Artifact comprehensibilityp. 16
  27. 4.2.3 Artifact informativenessp. 16
  28. 4.2.4 Artifact judiciousnessp. 16
  29. 4.2.5 Artifact freshnessp. 17
  30. 4.2.6 Artifact interoperabilityp. 17
  31. 4.2.7 Artifact findability and availabilityp. 17
  32. 4.2.8 Artifact maintainabilityp. 17
  33. 4.3 Guidance on documentation processesp. 18
  34. 4.3.1 Generalp. 18
  35. 4.3.2 Define documentation objectivesp. 18
  36. 4.3.3 Provide organizational supportp. 18
  37. 4.3.4 Keep processes manageablep. 18
  38. 4.3.5 Provide guidelinesp. 19
  39. 4.3.6 Document continuouslyp. 19
  40. 4.3.7 Distribute documentation workp. 19
  41. 4.3.8 Incorporate audience inputp. 19
  42. 4.4 Trade-offs between qualities of documentation artifacts and processesp. 20
  43. 4.4.1 Informativeness vs. judiciousnessp. 20
  44. 4.4.2 Informativeness vs. comprehensibility, maintainability, and process manageabilityp. 20
  45. 4.4.3 Informativeness vs. freshnessp. 20
  46. 4.4.4 Continuous documenting vs. keeping processes manageablep. 20
  47. 5 Documentation templatesp. 21
  48. 5.1 Generalp. 21
  49. 5.2 Dataset documentation templatep. 23
  50. 5.3 Model documentation templatep. 25
  51. 6 Profilesp. 28
  52. A Default profilesp. 30
  53. A.1 Generalp. 30
  54. A.2 Default AI dataset profilep. 31
  55. A.3 Default AI Model Profilep. 42
  56. B Example of a Machine-Readable Documentation Artifactp. 53
  57. C Relationships with Other ISO/IEC Standards on AIp. 54
  58. Bibliographyp. 54