Lesson 8 of 19
Screen the use case
Answer seven screening questions about a specific AI use. Keep unknowns visible and turn attention areas into preparation work.
This lesson concerns artificial intelligence (AI) governance: how your organisation assigns responsibility, checks AI use and records decisions and follow-up. AI Governance keeps these records; it does not operate the external AI tool for you.
At the end of this lesson
- Answer the seven questions from known facts.
- Retain unknowns accurately.
- Turn areas needing attention into owned preparation.
Before you begin
This lesson is for use-case owners and contributors/reviewers within current rights. You can read and complete the paper activity without an account.
For optional workplace practice, use the correct saved use case and current activity-editing permission. For paper practice, the facts below are sufficient. If access is blocked, record your proposed response in your notes and ask the responsible administrator to check access.
Key ideas
Screening uses seven questions to identify areas needing preparation or closer review. It does not approve the use case or replace an assessment.
Autonomy is how much the AI can act without a person checking or authorising each step. Drafting text for a person to review differs from sending it or taking action automatically.
Affected people include those who use the output and those whose information, work or opportunities may be influenced by it. They may include customers, workers and people outside the immediate team.
A way to question or correct a result means an affected person can ask a responsible human to explain, review or correct it. Record whether that route exists and who responds; do not assume an AI-generated explanation provides human review.
Read each question against the specific task. A wider possible use of the product is not automatically the use being screened.
Follow these steps
1. Open the right screening
In Tools and activities, open AI screening questions for the intended use case. Screening identifies issues needing attention before detailed assessment.
Check the result: The task being screened is unambiguous.
2. Read all seven questions
Read the exact questions below in order. Autonomy means the system’s freedom to act. Consider who is affected and whether a person can explain, challenge or correct a result.
Check the result: You can interpret each question against this task rather than an imagined broader deployment.
3. Keep missing facts visible
Answer from known facts. Use Needs checking where information is missing, leave Yes/No unanswered and explain the gap in Optional note.
Check the result: An unknown remains visible instead of being silently turned into No.
4. Read attention areas
Review the areas the answers identify. They guide further work; they are not a score, certification or permission to proceed.
Check the result: You can explain why an area needs attention.
5. Assign preparation
Describe the missing check, responsible person and completion criterion using a suitable supported activity or action. For example, request the supplier’s retention terms and a review of their applicability.
Check the result: The gap has a specific follow-up rather than a generic promise to be careful.
6. Save and check
Save the draft or use the supported confirmation once required information is addressed. Reopen the result and check answers and notes.
Check the result: The recorded screening retains its unknowns and can inform preparation without authorising AI use.
The seven screening questions
- Does the AI system access, process, or handle any personal, sensitive, or confidential information during training, operation, or as input?
- Does the AI system interact directly with end users with significant autonomy or freedom to respond without meaningful human oversight?
- Does the AI system act autonomously at scale or would it be difficult to maintain human control and intervene if needed?
- Does the AI system make or support decisions affecting people in vulnerable circumstances, marginalised groups, or potentially underrepresented populations?
- Does the AI system operate in a regulated area or can have legal effects on individuals?
- Would harm from a wrong decision be difficult to contest, reverse, or provide redress for?
- Is the AI system designed for multiple purposes or easily adapted beyond its intended use through interfaces that are not tightly controlled?
Practise
Paper activity — fictional information
'The team knows the proposed tool will draft text. It does not know whether the supplier retains submitted information.' Explain how to record the relevant missing information and what follow-up to assign.
Write your response in your own notes before opening the answer. You do not need to sign in, change records or run an assessment.
Check your understanding
Should an unanswered data-handling question be recorded as "No" to finish screening?
Check your answer
No. Retain the unknown, explain it and assign the supplier/data check. Reread step 3 if absence of information is treated as a safe answer.
For the activity, record retention as Needs checking and explain that supplier retention is unknown. Assign someone to obtain the applicable terms and check them against the proposed information boundary before reconsidering the use.
Check your work
- All seven questions are addressed.
- Missing facts remain visible.
- Attention areas have specific follow-up rather than a generic approval claim.
Continue learning
Optional worked examples
Sources
These National AI Centre resources inform the lesson. This course does not imply Australian Government endorsement.