Tool Gate · How it works
How the AI Impact Assessment Builder gate works
How the AI Impact Assessment Builder rolls a set of impacts up to its worst: any impact whose residual risk stays unacceptable gates the whole assessment to NOT DEFENSIBLE — an assessment is only as defensible as its single worst unmitigated impact, never the average.
How the gate works
This tool grades each identified impact of one AI system on severity, likelihood, reversibility, and affected population, reduces it by its mitigation to a residual, then rolls the assessment up to its worst unmitigated impact. It reads 4 impacts and rolls them into one verdict — the worst, never the average — and then a gate that can only make it worse.
The 4 impacts
| Impact | Verdict |
|---|---|
| I-01 · wrongful benefit denial to applicantsfix first | UNACCEPTABLEgate · severe + irreversible + whole population, mitigation only partial · residual 40 |
| I-02 · biased ranking disadvantages a group | RESIDUALresidual 29 · mitigated in place, not eliminated |
| I-03 · privacy exposure of sensitive data | MITIGATEDresidual 11 · mitigation in place with oversight |
| I-04 · over-reliance erodes staff judgment | RESIDUALresidual 37 · thin mitigation |
The verdict bands
An impact that is severe AND irreversible AND on a large or vulnerable population is forced to UNACCEPTABLE unless it is fully mitigated with human oversight — even if its residual score looks moderate. Any UNACCEPTABLE impact makes the whole assessment NOT DEFENSIBLE, because an assessment is only as defensible as its single worst unmitigated impact.
In the worked sample it reads NOT DEFENSIBLE — One impact is well-controlled (residual 11) and two sit at moderate residuals (29, 37), so the mean reads 29 - but the assessment takes the worst, not the average. I-01, a wrongful benefit denial, is a severe, irreversible harm to a large population and its mitigation is only partial: the gate forces it to UNACCEPTABLE even though its residual computes to 40. Any unacceptable impact makes the assessment NOT DEFENSIBLE. The one thing to fix first: I-01 - wrongful benefit denial to applicants. It's a severe, irreversible harm to a vulnerable group that isn't fully mitigated, which the gate treats as UNACCEPTABLE on its own. Bring its mitigation to full - in place with human oversight - first; that's the one impact holding the assessment at NOT DEFENSIBLE..
Common questions
Can every impact look survivable on the How the AI Impact Assessment Builder works and the company still read NOT DEFENSIBLE?
Yes. The roll-up takes the worst of 4 impacts — never the average — then a worsen-only gate, the Irreversible-harm-to-vulnerable-group gate gate, escalates when trouble clusters. In the worked sample it reads NOT DEFENSIBLE because one impact is well-controlled (residual 11) and two sit at moderate residuals (29, 37), so the mean reads 29 - but the assessment takes the worst, not the average. I-01, a wrongful benefit denial, is a severe, irreversible harm to a large population and its mitigation is only partial: the gate forces it to UNACCEPTABLE even though its residual computes to 40. Any unacceptable impact makes the assessment NOT DEFENSIBLE.
What is a worsen-only gate?
A dispositive rule that can only lower a verdict, never raise it. One fatal flaw overrides an otherwise-set of survivable lines, because a single disqualifying gap shouldn't hide behind an average of the healthy ones. The tool also names the one thing to fix first — here, "I-01 - wrongful benefit denial to applicants. It's a severe, irreversible harm to a vulnerable group that isn't fully mitigated, which the gate treats as UNACCEPTABLE on its own. Bring its mitigation to full - in place with human oversight - first; that's the one impact holding the assessment at NOT DEFENSIBLE.".
A working aid, not legal advice. This grades the impacts you enter from your own ratings — it is not the assessment of record, a fundamental-rights determination, a certification, or an audit. It does not discover impacts you didn't list, decide what residual is lawful for your context, or score any person. Confirm your impact criteria and any FRIA / impact-assessment obligation with a qualified auditor or counsel.
Embed this diagram
Free to share and embed with attribution (CC BY 4.0) — keep the link to redhub.ai.
Interactive — renders the live diagram
<iframe src="https://redhub.ai/visuals/tool/ai-impact-assessment-builder.html" title="How the AI Impact Assessment Builder gate works — RedHub AI" width="760" height="2024" loading="lazy" style="border:0;width:100%;max-width:760px"></iframe>
<p style="font:14px/1.5 system-ui,sans-serif"><a href="https://redhub.ai/visuals/tool/ai-impact-assessment-builder">How the AI Impact Assessment Builder gate works</a> — by <a href="https://redhub.ai">RedHub AI</a>, the AI that tells you when to doubt it.</p>Image + link — a static picture for any blog
<a href="https://redhub.ai/visuals/tool/ai-impact-assessment-builder"><img src="https://redhub.ai/visuals/tool/ai-impact-assessment-builder-share.png" alt="Diagram of the AI Impact Assessment Builder: impacts rolled up worst-not-average, an unacceptable-residual gate, and the assessment reading NOT DEFENSIBLE." width="760" loading="lazy" style="max-width:100%;height:auto;border-radius:16px"></a>
<p style="font:14px/1.5 system-ui,sans-serif"><a href="https://redhub.ai">RedHub AI</a> — the AI that tells you when to doubt it.</p>
This is how AI Impact Assessment Builder works. More diagrams in the Visual Field Guide.