Christopher Kelley
AI Governance / Control frameworks

Mapping NIST AI RMF to controls that actually run.

From the four functions to enforceable, testable obligations.

By Christopher M. KelleyEssay 8 min May 2026 4 sources
AI Governance · Control frameworks

The four functions — govern, map, measure, manage — are a vocabulary, not an implementation. This is the translation layer: how each becomes an obligation the system enforces at runtime rather than a heading in a report.

Govern

Ownership with teeth: a named accountable owner for every model in production, and a gate they cannot delegate away.

Map

Know what the system can and cannot be trusted to do — and encode the boundary, so the untrusted path is closed by construction.

Measure

Instrument the failure modes that matter, continuously, in production — not once, at assessment time.

Manage

The response is automatic where it can be and routed to a person where it must be. The point is that something happens — deterministically — when a threshold is crossed.

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