AI Governance Engineer
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Synthetic data

By Updated

Data generated by a model or simulation rather than collected from people or events, used to augment training sets, test edge cases or reduce exposure of personal data. It inherits the biases of its generator and can leak the records it was fitted on, so it is tested like any other dataset.

Developed in
ch. 14, Synthetic data, augmentation and privacy-enhancing technologies
Chapters
ch. 14, Development · ch. 19, Privacy & AI
Source
Defined by this Body of Knowledge: the section it is developed in is the source

Where it is used

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

Synthetic data: mentions per chapter10 mentions of the term across 5 of the 23 chapters of the Body of Knowledge; the chapters the glossary cross-references are drawn solid.Cross-referenced chapterOther chapter08 Regulatory Map: 1 mention08 Regulatory Map112 Governance Program: 2 mentions12 Governance Program214 Development: 5 mentions14 Development519 Privacy & AI: 1 mention19 Privacy & AI121 AI Laws Worldwide: 1 mention21 AI Laws Worldwide1No mentions in the other 18 chaptersSource: the Body of Knowledgev0.5.0
Synthetic data: mentions per chapter10 mentions of the term across 5 of the 23 chapters of the Body of Knowledge; the chapters the glossary cross-references are drawn solid.Cross-referenced chapterOther chapter000102030405060708 Regulatory Map: 1 mention108101112 Governance Program: 2 mentions2121314 Development: 5 mentions5141516171819 Privacy & AI: 1 mention1192021 AI Laws Worldwide: 1 mention1212223Source: 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 Synthetic data 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 Map1No
10 Reading List0No
11 AI Defined0No
12 Governance Program2No
13 Risk Management0No
14 Development5Yes
15 Deployment0No
16 Fairness & XAI0No
17 Incidents0No
18 EU AI Act0No
19 Privacy & AI1Yes
20 Existing Law0No
21 AI Laws Worldwide1No
22 Principles & Standards0No
23 AI Agents0No

Patterns that use this term

One pattern page uses the term.

  • Privacy-enhancing technology (PET)

    A technique that reduces what an attacker, vendor or insider can learn from personal data, such as differential privacy, federated learning, synthetic data…

Sources

No external source: the term is coined or used in a specific sense by this Body of Knowledge, and the section linked under "Developed in" is its source.

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

Cite this term

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

BibTeX

@misc{aige2026syntheticdata,
  author  = {Jorge García Aibar},
  title   = {{Synthetic data}},
  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/synthetic-data}
}