Standards¶

June 24, 2026
in Robotics, AI Evaluation, Standards
3 min read

Robot benchmarks need to travel across labs

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has opened a global online competition for robot manipulation skills. Through ManipulationNet, teams can record robots performing progressively harder physical tasks, receive artificial intelligence-supported scoring, and have expert reviewers check the results.

Moving the test instead of the robot could make physical-system evaluation more accessible. It also exposes the central challenge of distributed measurement: the protocol must be consistent enough to compare and flexible enough to survive different laboratories, hardware, and recording conditions.

December 19, 2023
in AI Governance, Standards, AI Assurance
3 min read

AI safety needs better questions before better rules

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has issued a request for information (RFI) on the safe, secure, and trustworthy development and use of artificial intelligence. Responses will inform future guidance on evaluation, red teaming, risk management, and related measurement challenges.

The request arrives after a year of rapid capability releases and equally rapid calls for guardrails. Before guidance becomes more specific, the field needs to ask more precise questions about systems, evidence, and use.

June 22, 2023
in AI Governance, Standards, Organizational Learning
3 min read

Generative AI guidance should be built in public

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has formed a public working group to help develop guidance for generative artificial intelligence. The group will begin by considering how the Artificial Intelligence Risk Management Framework (AI RMF) applies to these systems and will draw input from industry, academia, government, and civil society.

That open process is not a detour on the way to a standard. It is part of how a credible standard is made.