Reversibility
Whether a decision or action can be undone at low cost if it turns out wrong. A routing choice or a password reset can be; a dismissal, a declined application or a public commitment made in a client's name cannot.
What it means in practice
The first-task article makes reversibility one of four properties of a good first AI task, with being frequent, checkable and low-consequence. It says a reply that goes out unchecked turns a drafting task into a decision made in the business’s name, and a wrong answer is public and hard to undo. The safer first step it suggests is AI proposing a reply that a named person reads and sends.
How we use it
The task and decision article uses reversibility to place each step on the delegation ladder at scoping. For actions that cannot be undone, the exception handling page sets out the choice between holding an action and reversing it, and the workflow article gives the questions to ask a vendor.
FAQ
Questions about Reversibility
How does reversibility affect what AI is allowed to do?
The task and decision article makes it one of five questions that set a step's level, alongside volume, consequence, how clear the rules are and whether the decision needs legitimacy a model cannot supply. High-volume, low-consequence, reversible steps with clear rules can run on their own. Steps scoring the opposite stay with a person.
What should happen when an AI action cannot easily be undone?
The workflow article says that where a system can send messages, change records or move money, ask where a human in the loop has to approve and whether that is a deliberate design decision. The exception handling page adds that holding an action for approval before it lands is the safer design for actions that are hard to undo.
How to tell a Real AI Workflow from a Chatbot in disguiseException Handling
What it means for a Business
It is one of the clearest tests for how much authority a system should be given. The first-task article calls keeping a step reversible the cheapest form of safety there is: a draft nobody has sent is fully reversible, and a sent email is not.
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