AI Governance Engineer
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Loss of control

By Updated

One of the systemic risks the GPAI Code of Practice specifies: risks from humans losing the ability to reliably direct, modify or shut down a model, which may emerge from misalignment, self-replication, deception, resistance to goal modification or power-seeking 1. Signatories assess it for models with systemic risk; a deployer of agents asks how autonomy and tool use were evaluated.

Developed in
ch. 23, EU AI Act hooks for agents
ch. 08, GPAI Code of Practice
Chapters
ch. 08, Regulatory Map · ch. 23, AI Agents
Source
1 numbered reference, listed below

Where it is used

2 chapters of the Body of Knowledge use the term. Each link opens the first section that does.

Loss of control: mentions per chapter4 mentions of the term across 2 of the 23 chapters of the Body of Knowledge; the chapters the glossary cross-references are drawn solid.Cross-referenced chapter08 Regulatory Map: 3 mentions08 Regulatory Map323 AI Agents: 1 mention23 AI Agents1No mentions in the other 21 chaptersSource: the Body of Knowledgev0.5.0
Loss of control: mentions per chapter4 mentions of the term across 2 of the 23 chapters of the Body of Knowledge; the chapters the glossary cross-references are drawn solid.Cross-referenced chapter000102030405060708 Regulatory Map: 3 mentions3081011121314151617181920212223 AI Agents: 1 mention123Source: the Body of Knowledge v0.5.0
Mentions per chapter How often each chapter names the term, with the chapters the glossary cross-references drawn solid. The longest bar is where to read the term in use; bars spread across many chapters mark a term that runs through the discipline.
Mentions as a table
Mentions of Loss of control per chapter
ChapterMentionsCross-referenced
00 Preface0No
01 Definition0No
02 Why Now0No
03 Values & Principles0No
04 The Stack0No
05 Patterns0No
06 The Role0No
07 Maturity Model0No
08 Regulatory Map3Yes
10 Reading List0No
11 AI Defined0No
12 Governance Program0No
13 Risk Management0No
14 Development0No
15 Deployment0No
16 Fairness & XAI0No
17 Incidents0No
18 EU AI Act0No
19 Privacy & AI0No
20 Existing Law0No
21 AI Laws Worldwide0No
22 Principles & Standards0No
23 AI Agents1Yes
Loss of control: related terms and patternsThe term at the centre; related terms on solid edges, the terms it is contrasted with on dashed edges, and the patterns that use it most in the colour of their layer.RelatedLoss of controlRelated terms (5)Autonomy · RelatedAutonomyDeployer · RelatedDeployerGPAI · RelatedGPAIGPAI Code of Practice · RelatedGPAI Code of PracticeSystemic risk · RelatedSystemic risk
Loss of control: related terms and patternsThe term at the centre; related terms on solid edges, the terms it is contrasted with on dashed edges, and the patterns that use it most in the colour of their layer.RelatedRelated terms (5)Autonomy · RelatedAutonomyDeployer · RelatedDeployerGPAI · RelatedGPAIGPAI Code of Practice · RelatedGPAI Code of PracticeSystemic risk · RelatedSystemic riskLoss of control
The term's neighbourhood Terms related to this one on solid edges, terms it is often confused with on dashed edges, and the patterns that use it most in the colour of their layer. Follow a dashed edge to check the distinction before you use either term.
Neighbourhood as a table
Neighbourhood of Loss of control
FamilyItemRelation
Related termsAutonomyRelated
Related termsDeployerRelated
Related termsGPAIRelated
Related termsGPAI Code of PracticeRelated
Related termsSystemic riskRelated
  • GPAI Code of Practice

    The voluntary instrument (published 10 July 2025) that general-purpose-AI providers use to demonstrate compliance with their AI Act obligations until…

  • GPAI

    General-purpose AI model: under the AI Act, a model that shows significant generality, can competently perform a wide range of distinct tasks and can be…

  • Systemic risk

    Under the AI Act, the risk posed by the most capable general-purpose AI models, triggering extra evaluation, adversarial-testing and incident-reporting duties…

  • Autonomy

    In the EU AI Act and OECD texts, some degree of independence of action from human involvement, which almost every AI system has.

  • Deployer

    Under the EU AI Act, whoever uses an AI system under its own authority, other than in a purely personal, non-professional activity.

Sources

  1. [1] General-Purpose AI Code of Practice, Safety and Security chapter (Commitment 9, serious incident reporting, Measure 9.2; Appendix 1.4 specified systemic risks, incl. loss of control). European Commission. 2025-07-10. https://ec.europa.eu/newsroom/dae/redirection/document/118119 (verified: primary)

Definitions of legal terms paraphrase the cited text, which governs. Dated statements are as of .

Cite this term

García Aibar, J. (2026). Loss of control. In AI Governance Engineering: The Thesis & Body of Knowledge (v0.5.0), Glossary. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22956197. https://aigovernanceengineer.com/glossary/loss-of-control. CC BY 4.0

BibTeX

@misc{aige2026lossofcontrol,
  author  = {Jorge García Aibar},
  title   = {{Loss of control}},
  note    = {Glossary, AI Governance Engineering: The Thesis \& Body of Knowledge, version 0.5.0},
  year    = {2026},
  doi     = {10.5281/zenodo.22956197},
  url     = {https://aigovernanceengineer.com/glossary/loss-of-control}
}