Responsible AI Is Measured by the Right to Question It

An institution can publish an artificial-intelligence policy, appoint a committee and describe its values while leaving the person affected by an automated decision with nowhere to turn. A learner may be flagged for misconduct without understanding the evidence. A staff member may be ranked by a system whose criteria cannot be examined. A congregant may receive persuasive spiritual guidance from a machine without knowing its limits. A disabled learner may discover that a supposedly innovative platform cannot be used with the assistive technology on which he or she depends.

In each case, the decisive question is not whether the organisation uses the language of responsible AI. It is whether a person can understand what happened, reach an accountable human being, challenge the result and obtain a meaningful remedy.

This is where AI ethics becomes governance. Responsible AI is measured by the right to question it.

The second Global Index on Responsible AI, released in July 2026, assesses 135 countries and jurisdictions through more than 68,000 data points gathered by country-level researchers. It examines inclusion and diversity, ethics and sustainability, labour and skills, trust and safety, and AI in public-service delivery. The Index reports an average responsible-AI score of about 35 out of 100. Where frameworks are active, evidence of implementation exists in only 55 per cent of cases, falling to 45 per cent in Global…