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Centre for Assuring Autonomy
HomeCentre for Assuring AutonomyGuidanceThe BIG Argument

The BIG Argument - a whole systems approach to AI safety cases

The Balanced, Integrated and Grounded (BIG) argument is a comprehensive approach to safety cases for the assurance of AI and autonomous systems including those utilising frontier and general-purpose AI models.

As AI and autonomous systems become wide-spread across society the use of safety cases to assure such technologies are becoming increasingly relied on by developers and regulators to address the emerging challenges these technologies present. Our BIG Argument introduces a way to address these challenges in a sustainable, scalable and practical way.

It demonstrates that prioritising safety can go hand in hand with innovation.

The BIG Argument brings together the our industry-recognised frameworks and methodologies:

  1. Principles-based Ethics Assurance (PRAISE)
  2. Assurance of Autonomous Systems in Complex Environments (SACE)
  3. Assurance of Machine Learning for use in Autonomous Systems (AMLAS)

It's a cross domain approach which addresses AI safety at both the technical and the sociotechnical levels across AI, autonomous systems and robotics. Importantly, it enables and supports the safe deployment of frontier AI models addressing a critical gap in development and deployment.

Download The BIG Argument Paper

The BIG Argument is:

  • Balanced, addressing safety alongside other ethical issues.
  • Integrated, bringing together the social, ethical and technical aspects of safety assurance.
  • Grounded, building on long-established safety norms and practices from safety-critical systems.

The BIG Argument for AI Safety Cases (PDF , 8,024kb)

Our other methodologies

To learn more about the methodologies and frameworks which comprise The BIG Argument, click on the links below. 

SACE

AMLAS

PRAISE