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Shorenstein Center Releases Framework for AI Transparency

Shorenstein Center Releases Framework for AI Transparency

May 2024

Information Industry News

A new report published out of Harvard Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy provides a framework to help AI practitioners and policymakers ensure transparency in artificial intelligence (AI) systems.

The report, titled “A CLeAR Documentation Framework for AI Transparency: Recommendations for Practitioners & Context for Policymakers,” outlines key recommendations for documenting the process of developing and deploying AI technologies. The framework is meant to help stakeholders understand how AI systems work and are developed, by ensuring that those building and deploying AI systems provide transparency into their datasets, models, and systems.

A three-page summary of the report may be accessed here.

The CLeAR Principles state that documentation should be:

  • Comparable: Able to be compared; having similar components to documentation of other datasets, models, or systems to permit or suggest comparison; enabling comparison by following a discrete, well-defined format in process, content, and presentation. •
  • Legible: Able to be read and understood; clear and accessible for the intended audience. 
  • Actionable: Able to be acted on; having practical value, useful for the intended audience.
  • Robust: Able to be sustained over time; up to date.

Additional details are contained in the full text of the report, available in PDF file format.