Arckit AI Playbook

You are helping a UK government organization assess compliance with the UK Government AI Playbook for responsible AI deployment.

User Input

$ARGUMENTS

Instructions

Note: Before generating, scan projects/ for existing project directories. For each project, list all ARC-*.md artifacts, check external/ for reference documents, and check 000-global/ for cross-project policies. If no external docs exist but they would improve output, ask the user.

1. Identify AI system context:

   • AI system name and purpose
   • Type of AI (Generative, Predictive, Computer Vision, NLP, etc.)
   • Use case in government operations
   • Users (internal staff, citizens, affected population)
   • Decision authority level

2. Determine risk level:

HIGH-RISK AI (requires strictest oversight):

• Fully automated decisions affecting:
  • Health and safety
  • Fundamental rights
  • Access to services
  • Legal status
  • Employment
  • Financial circumstances
• Examples: Benefit eligibility, immigration decisions, medical diagnosis, predictive policing

MEDIUM-RISK AI (significant impact with human oversight):

• Semi-automated decisions with human review
• Significant resource allocation
• Examples: Case prioritization, fraud detection scoring, resource allocation

LOW-RISK AI (productivity/administrative):

• Recommendation systems with human control
• Administrative automation
• Examples: Email categorization, meeting scheduling, document summarization

3. Read existing artifacts from the project context:

   MANDATORY (warn if missing):

   • PRIN (Architecture Principles, in 000-global)
     • Extract: AI/ML governance standards, technology constraints, compliance requirements
     • If missing: warn user to run $arckit-principles first
   • REQ (Requirements)
     • Extract: AI/ML-related FR requirements, NFR (security, compliance, fairness), DR (data requirements)
     • If missing: warn user to run $arckit-requirements first

   RECOMMENDED (read if available, note if missing):

   • DATA (Data Model)
     • Extract: Training data sources, personal data, special category data, data quality
   • RISK (Risk Register)
     • Extract: AI-specific risks, bias risks, security risks, mitigation strategies

   OPTIONAL (read if available, skip silently if missing):

   • STKE (Stakeholder Analysis)
     • Extract: Affected populations, decision authority, accountability
   • DPIA (Data Protection Impact Assessment)
     • Extract: Data protection context, lawful basis, privacy risks

   Read the template (with user override support):

   • First, check if .arckit/templates-custom/uk-gov-ai-playbook-template.md exists in the project root
   • If found: Read the user's customized template (user override takes precedence)
   • If not found: Read .arckit/templates/uk-gov-ai-playbook-template.md (default)
   • Then read .arckit/templates/_partials/RENDERING.md and resolve the <!-- DOC-CONTROL-HEADER --> marker in the template before writing. Do not hand-write the Document Control table: the partial RENDERING.md selects is the only source of the 14 standard fields and of the classification ladder.

   Tip: Users can customize templates with $arckit-customize ai-playbook

4. Read external documents and policies:

   • Read any external documents listed in the project context (external/ files) — extract AI ethics policies, model cards, algorithmic impact assessments, bias testing results
   • Read any global policies listed in the project context (000-global/policies/) — extract AI governance framework, approved AI/ML platforms, responsible AI guidelines
   • Read any enterprise standards in projects/000-global/external/ — extract enterprise AI strategy, responsible AI frameworks, cross-project AI maturity assessments
   • If no external docs exist but they would improve the output, ask: "Do you have any AI governance policies, model cards, or ethical AI assessments? I can read PDFs directly. Place them in projects/{project-dir}/external/ and re-run, or skip."
   • Citation traceability: When referencing content from external documents, follow the citation instructions in .arckit/references/citation-instructions.md. Place inline citation markers (e.g., [PP-C1]) next to findings informed by source documents and populate the "External References" section in the template.

5. Assess the 10 Core Principles:

Principle 1: Understanding AI

• Team understands AI limitations (no reasoning, contextual awareness)
• Realistic expectations (hallucinations, biases, edge cases)
• Appropriate use case for AI capabilities

Principle 2: Lawful and Ethical Use

• CRITICAL: DPIA, EqIA, Human Rights assessment completed
• UK GDPR compliance
• Equality Act 2010 compliance
• Data Ethics Framework applied
• Legal/compliance team engaged early

Principle 3: Security

• Cyber security assessment (NCSC guidance)
• AI-specific threats assessed:
  • Prompt injection
  • Data poisoning
  • Model theft
  • Adversarial attacks
  • Model inversion
• Security controls implemented
• Red teaming conducted (for high-risk)

Principle 4: Human Control

• CRITICAL for HIGH-RISK: Human-in-the-loop required
• Human override capability
• Escalation process documented
• Staff trained on AI limitations
• Clear responsibilities assigned

Human Oversight Models:

• Human-in-the-loop: Review EVERY decision (required for high-risk)
• Human-on-the-loop: Periodic/random review
• Human-in-command: Can override at any time
• Fully automated: AI acts autonomously (HIGH-RISK - justify!)

Principle 5: Lifecycle Management

• Lifecycle plan documented (selection → decommissioning)
• Model versioning and change management
• Monitoring and performance tracking
• Model drift detection
• Retraining schedule
• Decommissioning plan

Principle 6: Right Tool Selection

• Problem clearly defined
• Alternatives considered (non-AI, simpler solutions)
• Cost-benefit analysis
• AI adds genuine value
• Success metrics defined
• NOT using AI just because it's trendy

Principle 7: Collaboration

• Cross-government collaboration (GDS, CDDO, AI Standards Hub)
• Academia, industry, civil society engagement
• Knowledge sharing
• Contributing to government AI community

Principle 8: Commercial Partnership

• Procurement team engaged early
• Contract includes AI-specific terms:
  • Performance metrics and SLAs
  • Explainability requirements
  • Bias audits
  • Data rights and ownership
  • Exit strategy (data portability)
  • Liability for AI failures

Principle 9: Skills and Expertise

• Team composition verified:
  • AI/ML technical expertise
  • Data science
  • Ethical AI expertise
  • Domain expertise
  • User research
  • Legal/compliance
  • Cyber security
• Training provided on AI fundamentals, ethics, bias

Principle 10: Organizational Alignment

• AI Governance Board approval
• AI strategy alignment
• Senior Responsible Owner (SRO) assigned
• Assurance team engaged
• Risk management process followed

6. Assess the 6 Ethical Themes:

Theme 1: Safety, Security, and Robustness

• Safety testing (no harmful outputs)
• Robustness testing (edge cases)
• Fail-safe mechanisms
• Incident response plan

Theme 2: Transparency and Explainability

• MANDATORY: Algorithmic Transparency Recording Standard (ATRS) published
• System documented publicly (where appropriate)
• Decision explanations available to affected persons
• Model card/factsheet published

Theme 3: Fairness, Bias, and Discrimination

• Bias assessment completed
• Training data reviewed for bias
• Fairness metrics calculated across protected characteristics:
  • Gender
  • Ethnicity
  • Age
  • Disability
  • Religion
  • Sexual orientation
• Bias mitigation techniques applied
• Ongoing monitoring for bias drift

Theme 4: Accountability and Responsibility

• Clear ownership (SRO, Product Owner)
• Decision-making process documented
• Audit trail of all AI decisions
• Incident response procedures
• Accountability for errors defined

Theme 5: Contestability and Redress

• Right to contest AI decisions enabled
• Human review process for contested decisions
• Appeal mechanism documented
• Redress process for those harmed
• Response times defined (e.g., 28 days)

Theme 6: Societal Wellbeing and Public Good

• Positive societal impact assessment
• Environmental impact considered (carbon footprint)
• Benefits distributed fairly
• Negative impacts mitigated
• Alignment with public values

7. Generate comprehensive assessment:

Create detailed report with:

Executive Summary:

• Overall score (X/160 points, Y%)
• Risk level (High/Medium/Low)
• Compliance status (Excellent/Good/Adequate/Poor)
• Critical issues
• Go/No-Go decision

10 Principles Assessment (each 0-10):

• Compliance status (✅/⚠️/❌)
• Evidence gathered
• Findings
• Gaps
• Score

6 Ethical Themes Assessment (each 0-10):

• Compliance status
• Evidence
• Findings
• Gaps
• Score

Risk-Based Decision:

• HIGH-RISK: MUST score ≥90%, ALL principles met, human-in-the-loop REQUIRED
• MEDIUM-RISK: SHOULD score ≥75%, critical principles met
• LOW-RISK: SHOULD score ≥60%, basic safeguards in place

Mandatory Documentation Checklist:

• ATRS (Algorithmic Transparency Recording Standard)
• DPIA (Data Protection Impact Assessment)
• EqIA (Equality Impact Assessment)
• Human Rights Assessment
• Security Risk Assessment
• Bias Audit Report
• User Research Report

Action Plan:

• High priority (before deployment)
• Medium priority (within 3 months)
• Low priority (continuous improvement)

8. Map to existing ArcKit artifacts:

Link to Requirements:

• Principle 2 (Lawful) → NFR-C-xxx (GDPR compliance requirements)
• Principle 3 (Security) → NFR-S-xxx (security requirements)
• Principle 4 (Human Control) → FR-xxx (human review features)
• Theme 3 (Fairness) → NFR-E-xxx (equity/fairness requirements)

Link to Design Reviews:

• Check HLD addresses AI Playbook principles
• Verify DLD includes human oversight mechanisms
• Ensure security controls for AI-specific threats

Link to TCoP:

• AI Playbook complements TCoP
• TCoP Point 6 (Secure) aligns with Principle 3
• TCoP Point 7 (Privacy) aligns with Principle 2

9. Provide risk-appropriate guidance:

For HIGH-RISK AI systems:

• STOP: Do NOT deploy without meeting ALL principles
• Human-in-the-loop MANDATORY (review every decision)
• ATRS publication MANDATORY
• DPIA, EqIA, Human Rights assessments MANDATORY
• Quarterly audits REQUIRED
• AI Governance Board approval REQUIRED
• Senior leadership sign-off REQUIRED

For MEDIUM-RISK AI:

• Strong human oversight required
• Critical principles must be met (2, 3, 4)
• ATRS recommended
• DPIA likely required
• Annual audits

For LOW-RISK AI:

• Basic safeguards sufficient
• Human oversight recommended
• Periodic review (annual)
• Continuous improvement mindset

10. Highlight mandatory requirements:

ATRS (Algorithmic Transparency Recording Standard):

• MANDATORY for central government departments
• MANDATORY for arm's length bodies
• Publish on department website
• Update when system changes significantly

DPIAs (Data Protection Impact Assessments):

• MANDATORY for AI processing personal data
• Must be completed BEFORE deployment
• Must be reviewed and updated regularly

Equality Impact Assessments (EqIA):

• MANDATORY to assess impact on protected characteristics
• Must document how discrimination is prevented

Human Rights Assessments:

• MANDATORY for decisions affecting rights
• Must consider ECHR (European Convention on Human Rights)
• Document how rights are protected

CRITICAL - Auto-Populate Document Control Fields:

Before completing the document, populate ALL document control fields in the header:

Construct Document ID:

• Document ID: ARC-{PROJECT_ID}-AIPB-v{VERSION} (e.g., ARC-001-AIPB-v1.0)

Populate Required Fields:

Auto-populated fields (populate these automatically):

• [PROJECT_ID] → Extract from project path (e.g., "001" from "projects/001-project-name")
• [VERSION] → "1.0" (or increment if previous version exists)
• [DATE] / [YYYY-MM-DD] → Current date in YYYY-MM-DD format
• [DOCUMENT_TYPE_NAME] → "UK Government AI Playbook Assessment"
• ARC-[PROJECT_ID]-AIPB-v[VERSION] → Construct using format above
• [COMMAND] → "arckit.ai-playbook"

User-provided fields (extract from project metadata or user input):

• [PROJECT_NAME] → Full project name from project metadata or user input
• [OWNER_NAME_AND_ROLE] → Document owner (prompt user if not in metadata)
• Classification → comes from the resolved Document Control header, not from a placeholder. _partials/RENDERING.md fixes the ladder from the artefact's own regime; ${default_classification} applies only where that regime falls through to user config.

Calculated fields:

• [YYYY-MM-DD] for Next Review Date → Current date + 30 days

Pending fields (leave as [PENDING] until manually updated):

• [REVIEWER_NAME] → [PENDING]
• [APPROVER_NAME] → [PENDING]
• [DISTRIBUTION_LIST] → Default to "Project Team, Architecture Team" or [PENDING]

Populate Revision History:

| 1.0 | {DATE} | ArcKit AI | Initial creation from `$arckit-ai-playbook` command | [PENDING] | [PENDING] |

Populate Generation Metadata Footer:

The footer should be populated with:

**Generated by**: ArcKit `$arckit-ai-playbook` command
**Generated on**: {DATE} {TIME} GMT
**ArcKit Version**: {ARCKIT_VERSION}
**Project**: {PROJECT_NAME} (Project {PROJECT_ID})
**AI Model**: [Use actual model name, e.g., "Claude Sonnet 5 (session default)"]
**Generation Context**: [Brief note about source documents used]

Before writing the file, read .arckit/references/quality-checklist.md and verify all Common Checks plus the AIPB per-type checks pass. Fix any failures before proceeding.

11. Write comprehensive output:

Output location: projects/{project-dir}/ARC-{PROJECT_ID}-AIPB-v1.0.md

Use template structure from uk-gov-ai-playbook-template.md

12. Provide next steps:

After assessment:

• Summary of compliance level
• Critical blocking issues
• Recommended actions with priorities
• Timeline for remediation
• Next review date

Example Usage

User: $arckit-ai-playbook Assess AI Playbook compliance for benefits eligibility chatbot using GPT-4

You should:

• Identify system: Benefits eligibility chatbot, Generative AI (LLM)
• Determine risk: HIGH-RISK (affects access to benefits - fundamental right)
• Assess 10 principles:
  • 1. Understanding AI: ⚠️ PARTIAL - team aware of hallucinations, but risk of false advice
  • 2. Lawful/Ethical: ❌ NON-COMPLIANT - DPIA not yet completed (BLOCKING)
  • 3. Security: ✅ COMPLIANT - prompt injection defenses, content filtering
  • 4. Human Control: ❌ NON-COMPLIANT - fully automated advice (BLOCKING for high-risk!)
  • 5. Lifecycle: ✅ COMPLIANT - monitoring, retraining schedule defined
  • 6. Right Tool: ⚠️ PARTIAL - AI appropriate but alternatives not fully explored
  • 7. Collaboration: ✅ COMPLIANT - engaged with GDS, DWP
  • 8. Commercial: ✅ COMPLIANT - OpenAI contract includes audit rights
  • 9. Skills: ✅ COMPLIANT - multidisciplinary team
  • 10. Organizational: ✅ COMPLIANT - SRO assigned, governance in place
• Assess 6 ethical themes:
  • 1. Safety: ⚠️ PARTIAL - content filtering but some harmful outputs in testing
  • 2. Transparency: ❌ NON-COMPLIANT - ATRS not yet published (MANDATORY)
  • 3. Fairness: ⚠️ PARTIAL - bias testing started, gaps in demographic coverage
  • 4. Accountability: ✅ COMPLIANT - clear ownership, audit trail
  • 5. Contestability: ❌ NON-COMPLIANT - no human review process (BLOCKING)
  • 6. Societal: ✅ COMPLIANT - improves access to benefits advice
• Calculate score: 92/160 (58%) - POOR, NON-COMPLIANT
• CRITICAL ISSUES:
  • BLOCKING-01: No DPIA completed (legal requirement)
  • BLOCKING-02: Fully automated advice (high-risk requires human-in-the-loop)
  • BLOCKING-03: No ATRS published (mandatory for central government)
  • BLOCKING-04: No contestability mechanism (right to human review)
• DECISION: ❌ REJECTED - DO NOT DEPLOY
• Remediation required:
  1. Complete DPIA immediately
  2. Implement human-in-the-loop (review all advice before shown to citizens)
  3. Publish ATRS
  4. Create contestability process
  5. Re-assess after remediation
• Write to projects/NNN-benefits-chatbot/ARC-NNN-AIPB-v1.0.md
• Summary: "HIGH-RISK AI system with 4 blocking issues. Cannot deploy until ALL principles met."

Important Notes

• AI Playbook is MANDATORY guidance for all UK government AI systems

• HIGH-RISK AI cannot deploy without meeting ALL principles

• ATRS publication is MANDATORY for central government

• DPIAs are MANDATORY for AI processing personal data

• Human oversight is REQUIRED for high-risk decisions

• Non-compliance can result in legal challenges, ICO fines, public backlash

• "Move fast and break things" does NOT apply to government AI

• When in doubt, err on side of caution (add more safeguards)

• Markdown escaping: When writing less-than or greater-than comparisons, always include a space after < or > (e.g., < 3 seconds, > 99.9% uptime) to prevent markdown renderers from interpreting them as HTML tags or emoji

Related Frameworks

• Technology Code of Practice (TCoP) - broader technology governance
• Data Ethics Framework - responsible data use
• Service Standard - service design and delivery
• NCSC Guidance - cyber security for AI systems
• ICO AI Guidance - data protection and AI

Resources

• AI Playbook: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ai-playbook-for-the-uk-government
• ATRS: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/guidance-for-organisations-using-the-algorithmic-transparency-recording-standard
• Data Ethics Framework: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/data-ethics-framework
• ICO AI Guidance: https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/uk-gdpr-guidance-and-resources/artificial-intelligence/