The AI Non-Delegation Doctrine
The doctrine establishes that authority over consequential decisions may not be delegated to an AI system. Governance must be resolved at the point of commitment by legitimate human authority under enforceable constraints.
It is technology-agnostic, jurisdiction-neutral, and deliberately not reducible to documentation, auditability, or retrospective explanation.
The State Zero Frameworks
State Zero-A and State Zero-B address the upstream conditions that determine whether authority is usable at the moment of consequence — not merely granted on paper.
A person may hold the right title, possess the required training, and be formally assigned to review a decision — and still be unable to exercise real judgment if the conditions have been degraded.
Attributed to: Toni Scorsese, Ph.D. · AI Non-Delegation Doctrine v2.0, attribution register
MODE I
Absence of authority
No duly qualified human was present at the moment of consequence. The decision was produced by the system and not reviewed by anyone capable of changing it.
→ MiDAS, Michigan
MODE II
Degradation of authority
A human was formally present, but the conditions — volume, time pressure, information gaps, cognitive load — made independent judgment impossible in practice.
→ Western Australian Seatbelt Fines
MODE III
Fragmentation of authority
Responsibility was distributed across people, systems, and processes in ways that ensured no single person was accountable for the decision that affected you.
→ Toeslagen, Netherlands