Wrap Up

Points to remember

  • Monitoring alone does not create trust—actionable escalation chains, not just alert logs, determine whether oversight works in practice.

  • Detection is not intervention: many high-risk systems have surfaced alerts but lacked the governance logic to act on them (e.g., Uber AV crash, Air Canada chatbot).

  • Oversight must move from ritual to responsibility—defined thresholds, role-based authority, and fallback chains are required to meet ISO/IEC 42001 and the EU AI Act.

  • A system can show reviewers too much (metric noise) or too little (missing rationale)—interface design determines whether humans can meaningfully act.

  • Real-time oversight tools must go beyond display: they must support traceability, role-specific visibility, and closed-loop learning based on reviewer feedback.

  • Feedback is not governance unless it triggers action, is logged, and shapes system revision. Passive inboxes create audit trails of failure, not improvement.

  • Adaptive trust means monitoring not just accuracy—but also fairness drift, population shift, and ethical degradation over time.

  • ISO/IEC 24028 and 23894 emphasize post-deployment responsiveness and traceable revision processes, especially for systems that continue to learn.

  • Escalation maturity is not binary—it evolves from ad hoc monitoring to integrated, role-driven governance. Trustworthy AI requires maturity, not just monitoring.

  • Oversight is a shared responsibility:

    • Engineers design thresholds, triggers, and fallback paths
    • Reviewers interpret and act on alerts
    • End users and affected groups must have channels to contest, correct, and participate in oversight
    • Legal teams ensure compliance with standards like the EU AI Act, OECD Principles, and ISO/IEC 42001

  • Case studies in this chapter illustrate governance breakdowns—and how they could have been avoided:

    • Uber AV: Detection without human alert
    • Air Canada chatbot: Complaints without escalation
    • IBM Watson Oncology: Recommendations without local adaptation
    • Ofqual grading algorithm: System logic without contestation