COMPEL Glossary / ai-ethics-board
AI Ethics Board
An AI Ethics Board is a cross-functional body with genuine authority to review, approve, pause, or halt AI initiatives based on ethical criteria.
What this means in practice
Effective ethics boards include diverse perspectives: technologists who understand model capabilities and limitations, legal and compliance professionals who know regulatory requirements, HR representatives who understand workforce impact, business leaders who can assess proportionality, and external voices including ethicists and community representatives. The board's authority must be real, not advisory -- it must be able to stop projects that fail ethical review. Common governance theater anti-patterns include boards that review models only after deployment, boards without technical AI expertise, and boards that meet too infrequently to influence development timelines. In the COMPEL framework, the ethics board's terms of reference (TMPL-O-004) must define clear decision authority and meeting cadence.
Why it matters
Ethics boards without genuine authority to stop projects that fail ethical review become governance theater — visible structures that provide false assurance while permitting harmful AI deployments. Effective ethics boards with real decision-making power protect organizations from reputational crises, regulatory penalties, and genuine harm to individuals. The board's diverse composition ensures that technical, legal, social, and community perspectives all inform high-stakes AI decisions.
How COMPEL uses it
The ethics board's terms of reference are designed during the Organize stage using standardized COMPEL templates. Its authority structure is formalized during Model as part of the target governance architecture within the Governance pillar (D14-D18). During Produce, the board reviews AI initiatives before deployment, and during Evaluate, the board's effectiveness is assessed against criteria including decision frequency, project impact, and whether its authority has been respected or circumvented.
Related Terms
Other glossary terms mentioned in this entry's definition and context.