British Sign Language Glossaries of Curriculum Terms

BSL AI Glossary - Guardrails definition

Translation: Guardrails are the rules, limits, and safety measures built into an AI system to reduce the likelihood of it generating harmful, inaccurate, or inappropriate outputs. These measures can include filtered topics, restricted actions, safety checks, and instructions that guide how the system should respond. Guardrails help lower the risk of harm, but they cannot guarantee that every output will be correct or safe, which is why human oversight remains essential. For example, if an employee asked an AI system how to appear busy on Microsoft Teams, guardrails would prevent the system from providing advice that could undermine productivity or organisational expectations.