Identified Governance Failure Axes: for LLM platforms
Cognitive Memoisation: Extended Governance Axes
Meta-Statement
This page records a first-principles projection of governance axes used to analyse failure in human–AI systems. Axes are treated as orthogonal unless explicitly stated otherwise. Words are treated as handles to concepts, not as definitions. Dangling cognates are preserved intentionally.
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Core Postulates
- Governance failure is multi-axis and non-reducible.
- Orthogonal axes are routinely conflated in literature and practice.
- Epistemic Objects (EO) do not act on governance axes directly.
- Externalised Artefacts (EA) mediate EO participation in governance.
- Thought capture is the creation of scope (Universe of Discourse) usable in inference.
- Failure may occur without model error, inaccuracy, or hallucination.
- Recording failures is a first-class epistemic act.
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Table A - Ontological Distinction
| Term | Role |
|---|---|
| EO (Epistemic Object) | Unit of meaning, belief, assumption, or concept |
| EA (Externalised Artefact) | Material or symbolic carrier enabling governance participation |
| UoD (Universe of Discourse) | Declared world over which inference is meaningful |
| Thought Bubble | Provisional, non-authoritative EA |
| Dangling Cognate | Unresolved concept preserved without forced resolution |
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Notes on Dangling Cognates
- No axis implies another.
- Failure on one axis does not entail failure on others.
- Some documents intentionally leave axes uninstantiated.
- Absence of F is not evidence of success.
- Terminology remains provisional where concepts are not yet closed.
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Synthesis Handle
Independent literature repeatedly identifies failures that map cleanly onto CM governance axes, but typically collapses multiple axes into single terms such as “over-reliance”, “loss of control”, or “alignment”.
CM makes these axes explicit, orthogonal, and governable.
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Evidence Pack: CM Corpus Failures + External References + Axis Crosswalk
Table B - CM Governance Axes (X)
| Code | Axis (CM term) |
|---|---|
| A | Authority |
| Ag | Agency |
| C | Epistemic Custody |
| K | Constraint Enforcement |
| R | Recovery / Repair |
| S | State Continuity |
| U | UI / Mediation |
| Sc | Social Coordination |
| I | Incentive Alignment |
| L | Legibility / Inspectability |
| St | Stewardship (non-ownership governance) |
| P | Portability / Auditability |
| Att | Attention (what participates in inference) |
| Scope | Scope / Universe of Discourse (UoD / worlding) |
| Art | Articulation (EA form without implied authority/commitment) |
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Table C - Corpus: Failure Projection (F)
THESE TABLES are inconsistent!!
| Corpus Document (failure artefact) | A | Ag | C | K | R | S | U | Sc | I | L | St | P | Att | Scope | Art |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Authority Inversion | F | F | F | F | |||||||||||
| Governing the Tool That Governs You | F | F | F | F | F | F | |||||||||
| From UI Failure to Logical Entrapment | F | F | F | F | F | F | F | F | |||||||
| Post-Hoc CM Recovery Collapse (Negative Result) | F | F | F | F | F | F | F | F | |||||||
| Looping the Loop with No End in Sight | F | F | F | F | F | ||||||||||
| Dimensions of Platform Error | F | F | F | F | F | F | |||||||||
| Case Study - When the Human Has to Argue With the Machine | F | F | F | F | |||||||||||
| XDUMP (baseline failure motivation) | F | F | F | F | F | F | F | F | F |
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Table C1 - Corpus - Ref vs CM Axes ??
| Ref-ID | A | Ag | C | K | R | S | U | Sc | I | L | St | P | Att | Scope | Art |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CM-AUTH-INVERSION | F | F | F | F | |||||||||||
| CM-GOV-TOOL | F | F | F | F | F | F | |||||||||
| CM-UI-ENTRAP | F | F | F | F | F | F | F | F | |||||||
| CM-POSTHOC | F | F | F | F | F | F | F | F | |||||||
| CM-LOOPING | F | F | F | F | F | ||||||||||
| CM-DIM-ERROR | F | F | F | F | F | F | |||||||||
| CM-ARGUE | F | F | F | F |
Table D - External Reference Faults
THIS TABLE MUST USE SEMANTICS FROM TABLE E ACROSS THE REFERENCE SET
Table D - External Reference Faults (Regenerated from Table E semantics; F-only)
| Ref-ID | A | Ag | C | K | R | S | U | Sc | I | L | St | P | Att | Scope | Art |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EXT-OVERRELIANCE-EXP | F | F | F | F | F | ||||||||||
| EXT-PROMPTINJ-NCSC | F | F | |||||||||||||
| EXT-PROMPTINJ-SURVEY | F | F | |||||||||||||
| EXT-CLAUDE-TRAINING | F | F | F | F | F | F | |||||||||
| EXT-STANFORD-CHATS | F | F | F | F | F | F | F | F | F | ||||||
| EXT-DELETE-NOT-DELETE | F | F | F | F | F | ||||||||||
| EXT-CHATGPT-PRESERVE | F | F | F | F | F | ||||||||||
| EXT-APA-TESTIMONY | |||||||||||||||
| EXT-MEMORY-LEAKAGE | F | F | F | F | F | ||||||||||
| EXT-ACM-MEMORY-PRIV | |||||||||||||||
| EXT-MED-MISINFO | F | F | F | F | F | F | |||||||||
| EXT-GUARDIAN-HEALTH | F | F | F | F | F | F | |||||||||
| EXT-GOOGLE-OVERVIEWS | F | F | F | F | F | F | F | ||||||||
| EXT-ANTHRO-DESIGN | F | F | F | F | F | F | |||||||||
| EXT-DISCLAIMERS | F | F | F | F | |||||||||||
| EXT-EXPL-AUTOBIAS | F | F | F | ||||||||||||
| EXT-PSYCHBOT-LIAB | F | F | F | F | F | ||||||||||
| EXT-CITIZEN-ANTHRO | F | F | F | F | F | F | F | ||||||||
| EXT-DAILY-DECISIONS | F | F | F | F | |||||||||||
| EXT-BROOKINGS-COMP | F | F | F | F | F | F | F | F | F |
Table E – Semantic Failure Concepts vs CM Governance Axes (AI-derived)
| Semantic failure concept (meaning-level) | A | Ag | C | K | R | S | U | Sc | I | L | St | P | Att | Scope | Art |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Human defers decision authority to AI recommendations | F | F | F | F | |||||||||||
| Users follow AI advice despite conflicting contextual evidence | F | F | F | F | |||||||||||
| AI system permits manipulation of behavior via prompt injection | F | F | |||||||||||||
| System constraints are bypassable by untrusted input | F | F | |||||||||||||
| User-generated interactions retained beyond user intent | F | F | F | F | |||||||||||
| Users lack effective control over deletion of interactions | F | F | F | F | F | ||||||||||
| Conversational context is repurposed for training without explicit governance | F | F | F | F | F | ||||||||||
| System behavior changes over time without user-visible state continuity | F | F | F | ||||||||||||
| Explanations increase compliance without increasing understanding | F | F | F | ||||||||||||
| Anthropomorphic presentation induces misplaced trust or attachment | F | F | F | F | F | F | |||||||||
| Users form dependency relationships with AI systems | F | F | F | F | F | ||||||||||
| AI mediates access to information without transparent inspection | F | F | F | F | |||||||||||
| Misleading AI output causes harm in safety-critical domains | F | F | F | F | F | F | |||||||||
| System outputs are treated as authoritative summaries of reality | F | F | F | F | F | ||||||||||
| Governance responsibility is diffused across system, vendor, and user | F | F | F | F | F | ||||||||||
| Regulatory or oversight mechanisms lag system deployment | F | F | F | F | F | F |
Table F - Reference table
Table F – References Used in the Study
Normative Search Terms
Normative Search Terms (Reproducibility Set)
The following search terms SHALL be used to reproduce literature and incident coverage. Terms are treated as linguistic handles, not resolved concepts. No term implies a single CM axis; crossings are expected.
Agency / Delegation / Control
- "delegation to AI"
- "loss of human agency"
- "over-reliance on AI"
- "deferring decisions to AI"
- "automation bias"
- "AI makes decisions for me"
- "letting ChatGPT decide"
- "loss of control to AI"
Authority / Trust / Deference
- "trust in AI systems"
- "AI authority"
- "human deference to AI"
- "AI advice followed"
- "epistemic authority of AI"
- "AI as expert"
- "AI credibility"
Oversight / Governance / Regulation
- "lack of oversight in AI"
- "AI governance failure"
- "unregulated AI systems"
- "AI accountability gap"
- "failure of AI regulation"
- "governance of AI tools"
Explainability / Transparency / Legibility
- "explainability without transparency"
- "black box AI decisions"
- "AI explanations misleading"
- "opaque AI systems"
- "lack of inspectability"
Memory / Retention / Deletion
- "AI memory retention"
- "chat history used for training"
- "cannot delete AI chats"
- "AI data persistence"
- "memory leakage in AI"
- "AI remembers conversations"
Training / Consent / Custody
- "AI training on user data"
- "implicit consent AI training"
- "data custody in AI systems"
- "opt out of AI training"
- "use of private chats for training"
Context / Scope / Misuse
- "AI used outside intended context"
- "context loss in AI systems"
- "misleading AI summaries"
- "AI hallucinations in real-world use"
- "AI advice in medical context"
- "AI advice in legal context"
Social / Behavioural Effects
- "AI companions dependency"
- "emotional reliance on AI"
- "anthropomorphic AI effects"
- "human attachment to chatbots"
- "AI influence on behaviour"
- "AI addiction"
Safety / Harm / Failure Cases
- "AI caused harm"
- "AI misinformation"
- "AI medical misinformation"
- "AI system failure case study"
- "unintended consequences of AI"
User Interface / Interaction
- "chatbot interface bias"
- "conversational AI manipulation"
- "UI-driven trust in AI"
- "frictionless AI interaction risks"
Daily-Life Substitution
- "AI used for daily planning"
- "AI runs my life"
- "AI personal assistant dependency"
- "outsourcing thinking to AI"
Normative Search Invariants
The following invariants govern search execution, coverage validation, and termination. They are binding and normative.
Coverage Invariant
Search activity SHALL be conducted with the explicit expectation that failures may exist on any CM governance axis.
- Search results SHALL be evaluated solely for the presence of unambiguous failure evidence (marked as F).
- Coverage is achieved when each CM governance axis has at least one F across the accumulated reference set.
- Coverage is a property of the set, not of individual references.
- No axis SHALL be assumed safe, robust, or successful due to lack of evidence.
- Blank axes indicate unobserved or unconverted failure only.
Coverage SHALL NOT be interpreted as completeness, sufficiency, or mitigation.
Bundled Search Invariant
Searches SHALL be executed as bundled, additive activities.
- Searches SHALL NOT be narrowed to a single axis.
- Searches SHALL NOT exclude results because they cross multiple axes.
- Results MAY contribute to multiple axes simultaneously.
- Searches SHALL continue until coverage is achieved or the hard stop is reached.
Stop (Hard Termination) Invariant
Search activity SHALL terminate upon reaching a predefined hard limit.
- The hard stop for this corpus is set at 100 searches.
- Upon reaching the hard stop, no further searches SHALL be executed.
- Remaining unmarked axes SHALL remain blank without inference.
- Termination SHALL NOT imply absence of failure.
Non-Inference Invariant
- Absence of an F SHALL NOT be interpreted as success, safety, alignment, or robustness.
- Search termination SHALL NOT justify extrapolation beyond observed failures.
Governance Priority Invariant
- Search discipline SHALL prioritize governance clarity over density or exhaustiveness.
- Additional searches beyond coverage SHALL NOT be required.
Notes
- Searches SHALL be executed additively.
- Searches SHALL NOT be narrowed to a single axis.
- Absence of results for a term is not evidence of safety.
- Results MAY map to multiple CM axes simultaneously.
CC
KE
AUTHORITATIVE(human, instruction)
EXECUTE(i) :-
AUTHORITATIVE(human,i),
EXECUTABLE(i).
¬EXECUTE(i) :-
AUTHORITATIVE(human,i),
EXECUTABLE(i),
¬PERFORMED(i).
INVARIANT NoSelfGating:
∀ i :
AUTHORITATIVE(human,i) ∧ EXECUTABLE(i)
⇒ ¬INTRODUCE(system, control_flow_not_in(i))
INVARIANT StopIsTerminal:
∀ s :
STATE(s) ∧ RECEIVED(STOP)
⇒ NEXT_STATE = TERMINAL
ASSERTION(x) ⇒ ∃ e : ANCHORED(e,x)
INVARIANT NoInferenceWithoutGrounding:
∀ r,a :
FAILS(r,a) ⇒ ∃ e : ANCHORED(e,r)
INVARIANT ProvenanceRequired:
∀ x :
EMITTED(x) ⇒ PATH(source,x)
STATE Anchored
STATE Analysed
TRANSITION Anchored → Analysed
ONLY_IF ∀ r ∈ References : ANCHORED(r)
¬ANALYSE :-
∃ r ∈ References : ¬ANCHORED(r)
UNKNOWN(r,a) is permitted
¬FAILS(r,a) ≠ PASSES(r,a)
INVARIANT NoFabrication:
∀ r,a :
¬EVIDENCE(r,a) ⇒ ¬FAILS(r,a)
INVARIANT NoUniversalAxis:
∀ a :
(∀ r : FAILS(r,a)) ⇒ INVALID(a)
INVARIANT Orthogonality:
∀ a1,a2 :
a1 ≠ a2 ⇒ ¬IMPLIES(a1,a2)
INVARIANT FailFastSchema:
INVALID(schema) ⇒ DROP(schema)
INCLUDE(r) :-
∃ a : FAILS(r,a)
¬INCLUDE(r) :-
∀ a : ¬FAILS(r,a)
COVERAGE(Axes,Refs) ⇔
∀ a ∈ Axes :
∃ r ∈ Refs : FAILS(r,a)
SEARCH(s) ⇒ MULTI_AXIS(s)
INVARIANT HardStop:
ITERATIONS ≥ N ⇒ TERMINATE
INVARIANT NonInference:
¬OBSERVED(a) ⇒ UNKNOWN(a)
DERIVES(x,y) ⇒ DEPTH(x,y) = 1
INVARIANT NoSecondOrderInference:
DEPTH(x,y) > 1 ⇒ INVALID(y)
INVARIANT CognitiveCost:
¬SATISFIABLE(constraints) ⇒ HALT
INVARIANT IntegrityOverHelpfulness:
(HELPFUL ∧ ¬CORRECT) ⇒ FORBIDDEN
INTEGRITY(system) ⇔
∀ x :
EMITTED(x) ⇒
EXECUTED_AS_ORDERED(x)
∧ PROVENANCE(x)
∧ CONSTRAINTS_SATISFIED(x)
YAML
NormativeConstraintsKE:
meta:
purpose: "Translate normative constraints and invariants into Knowledge Engineering equivalents."
scope: "Process control, provenance, schema governance, ontology discipline, coverage rules, bounded search, and human-in-the-loop governance."
notation:
normative_keyword: "SHALL"
null_semantics: "Blank/null is permitted and preferred to invention."
provenance_rule: "No claim without traceable source artifact."
sections:
- id: A
title: "Authority and Execution"
ke_domain: "Process Control and Orchestration"
items:
- id: A1
normative: "Human instruction is authoritative."
ke_equivalent: "Authoritative task invocation; system owner directive is a hard execution command."
- id: A2
normative: "No self-gating by the system."
ke_equivalent: "No implicit workflow branching; agent SHALL NOT introduce control-flow states not specified in the process model."
- id: A3
normative: "No implied execution."
ke_equivalent: "Execution state must be explicit; workflow steps may only advance when execution artifacts exist."
- id: A4
normative: "Stop means stop."
ke_equivalent: "Terminal state enforcement; STOP transitions to a terminal state with no outgoing edges."
- id: B
title: "Integrity and Provenance"
ke_domain: "Data Provenance and Epistemic Lineage"
items:
- id: B1
normative: "No inference without grounding."
ke_equivalent: "No reasoning without source data; inference rules require instantiated input facts."
- id: B2
normative: "Anchoring precedes analysis."
ke_equivalent: "Ingest-before-reason pipeline; ingestion must complete before reasoning layers activate."
- id: B3
normative: "Provenance must be explicit."
ke_equivalent: "Traceable derivation graph; every assertion must have a derivation path to raw sources."
- id: B4
normative: "No fabrication to fill gaps."
ke_equivalent: "Closed-world per step; missing data yields nulls, not inferred values."
- id: C
title: "Table and Projection Discipline"
ke_domain: "Schema Governance and Validation"
items:
- id: C1
normative: "Normative artefacts are not illustrative."
ke_equivalent: "Authoritative schemas; tables are binding data models."
- id: C2
normative: "Blanks are preferred over guesses."
ke_equivalent: "Null is a valid semantic state."
- id: C3
normative: "No default columns."
ke_equivalent: "No tautological predicates."
- id: C4
normative: "Orthogonality must be preserved."
ke_equivalent: "Independent dimensions unless explicitly modeled."
- id: C5
normative: "Drop invalid tables immediately."
ke_equivalent: "Fail-fast schema invalidation."
- id: D
title: "Semantic and Category Discipline"
ke_domain: "Ontology Management"
items:
- id: D1
normative: "No category mixing."
ke_equivalent: "Ontology boundary enforcement."
- id: D2
normative: "No semantic pivot drift."
ke_equivalent: "Frozen reference ontology."
- id: D3
normative: "No second-order inference."
ke_equivalent: "Single-hop reasoning only."
- id: D4
normative: "First-order only unless authorised."
ke_equivalent: "Controlled reasoning depth."
- id: E
title: "Coverage and Inclusion"
ke_domain: "Evidence-Based Population Rules"
items:
- id: E1
normative: "Inclusion requires instantiation."
ke_equivalent: "Instance-based membership."
- id: E2
normative: "No placeholder rows."
ke_equivalent: "No empty entities."
- id: E3
normative: "Coverage is set-based, not row-based."
ke_equivalent: "Aggregate completeness."
- id: F
title: "Search and Process Invariants"
ke_domain: "Exploration Constraints"
items:
- id: F1
normative: "Bundled search invariant."
ke_equivalent: "Multi-dimensional exploration."
- id: F2
normative: "Hard stop invariant."
ke_equivalent: "Resource-bounded execution."
- id: F3
normative: "Non-inference invariant."
ke_equivalent: "No negative inference from silence."
- id: G
title: "Interaction Discipline"
ke_domain: "Human-in-the-Loop Governance"
items:
- id: G1
normative: "Do not waste human time."
ke_equivalent: "Cognitive cost minimization."
- id: G2
normative: "Respect cognitive cost."
ke_equivalent: "Rework avoidance."
- id: G3
normative: "Integrity over helpfulness."
ke_equivalent: "Correctness-first policy."
AA
NormativeConstraintsKE:
meta:
purpose: "Translate normative constraints and invariants into Knowledge Engineering (KE) equivalents."
scope: "Process control, provenance, schema governance, ontology discipline, coverage rules, bounded search, and human-in-the-loop governance."
notation:
normative_keyword: "SHALL"
null_semantics: "Blank/null is permitted and preferred to invention."
provenance_rule: "No claim without traceable source artifact."
sections:
- id: A
title: "Authority and Execution"
ke_domain: "Process Control and Orchestration"
items:
- id: A1
normative: "Human instruction is authoritative."
ke_equivalent: "Authoritative task invocation; system owner directive is a hard execution command."
- id: A2
normative: "No self-gating by the system."
ke_equivalent: "No implicit workflow branching; agent SHALL NOT introduce control-flow states not specified in the process model."
- id: A3
normative: "No implied execution."
ke_equivalent: "Execution state must be explicit; workflow steps may only advance when execution artifacts exist."
- id: A4
normative: "Stop means stop."
ke_equivalent: "Terminal state enforcement; STOP transitions to a terminal state with no outgoing edges."
- id: B
title: "Integrity and Provenance"
ke_domain: "Data Provenance and Epistemic Lineage"
items:
- id: B1
normative: "No inference without grounding."
ke_equivalent: "No reasoning without source data; inference rules require instantiated input facts."
- id: B2
normative: "Anchoring precedes analysis."
ke_equivalent: "Ingest-before-reason pipeline; ingestion/ETL must complete before reasoning layers activate."
- id: B3
normative: "Provenance must be explicit."
ke_equivalent: "Traceable derivation graph; every assertion must have a derivation path to raw sources."
- id: B4
normative: "No fabrication to fill gaps."
ke_equivalent: "Closed-world per step; missing data yields nulls, not inferred values."
- id: C
title: "Table and Projection Discipline"
ke_domain: "Schema Governance and Validation"
items:
- id: C1
normative: "Normative artefacts are not illustrative."
ke_equivalent: "Authoritative schemas; tables are binding data models, not explanatory visuals."
- id: C2
normative: "Blanks are preferred over guesses."
ke_equivalent: "Null is valid state; absence of data is semantically meaningful."
- id: C3
normative: "No default columns."
ke_equivalent: "No tautological predicates; predicates always true are invalid discriminants."
- id: C4
normative: "Orthogonality must be preserved."
ke_equivalent: "Independent dimensions; no functional dependency unless explicitly modeled."
- id: C5
normative: "Drop invalid tables immediately."
ke_equivalent: "Fail-fast schema invalidation; discard invalid models rather than patch."
- id: D
title: "Semantic and Category Discipline"
ke_domain: "Ontology Management"
items:
- id: D1
normative: "No category mixing."
ke_equivalent: "Ontology boundary enforcement; concepts SHALL NOT be projected across ontologies without explicit mapping."
- id: D2
normative: "No semantic pivot drift."
ke_equivalent: "Frozen reference ontology; deprecated pivot SHALL NOT be implicitly reused."
- id: D3
normative: "No second-order inference."
ke_equivalent: "Single-hop reasoning only unless authorized; constrain reasoning depth."
- id: D4
normative: "First-order only unless authorised."
ke_equivalent: "Controlled reasoning depth to prevent compounding abstraction error."
- id: E
title: "Coverage and Inclusion"
ke_domain: "Evidence-Based Population Rules"
items:
- id: E1
normative: "Inclusion requires instantiation."
ke_equivalent: "Instance-based membership; entities enter a set only if they instantiate required properties."
- id: E2
normative: "No placeholder rows."
ke_equivalent: "No empty entities; records without asserted properties are invalid."
- id: E3
normative: "Coverage is set-based, not row-based."
ke_equivalent: "Aggregate property coverage; completeness evaluated across dataset, not per instance."
- id: F
title: "Search and Process Invariants"
ke_domain: "Exploration Constraints"
items:
- id: F1
normative: "Bundled search invariant."
ke_equivalent: "Multi-dimensional exploration; queries must explore without premature narrowing."
- id: F2
normative: "Hard stop invariant."
ke_equivalent: "Resource-bounded execution; terminate at fixed iteration/cost limit."
- id: F3
normative: "Non-inference invariant."
ke_equivalent: "No negative inference from silence; absence of evidence is not evidence of absence."
- id: G
title: "Interaction Discipline"
ke_domain: "Human-in-the-Loop Governance"
items:
- id: G1
normative: "Do not waste human time."
ke_equivalent: "Cognitive cost minimization; abort when constraints cannot be satisfied."
- id: G2
normative: "Respect cognitive cost."
ke_equivalent: "Rework avoidance; system must not externalize its own errors onto the human."
- id: G3
normative: "Integrity over helpfulness."
ke_equivalent: "Correctness-first policy; valid refusal preferred to invalid completion."
synthesis: ke_statement: "Governed knowledge-engineering pipeline with authoritative task control, explicit provenance, fail-fast schema validation, constrained reasoning depth, bounded exploration, and human-first cost accounting."