ISO 22989 Revision Checker
ISO/IEC 22989:2022/FDAmd 1 Amendment 1: Generative AI Stage 50.00 Planning date 16 Feb 2027, an estimate 117 defined terms · 23 clause pages

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Terms related to AI · 3.1.34

subsymbolic AI

AI built on techniques and models that encode information implicitly, learned from experience or raw data

  • definition
  • Defined term
  • ISO/IEC 22989:2022/FDAmd 1
  • Last updated: 2026-10-21

What this term settles

This is the sense the standard gives subsymbolic AI. A firm is free to use another sense, but then the difference belongs in its own glossary rather than in an assumed shared language.

Who it binds

The clause does not instruct anyone. It settles what subsymbolic AI means so that an instruction written elsewhere can be read the same way by both sides.

What to do in your practice

Write the entry into the glossary the firm actually reads, not a shelf document. Check the two artefacts where the word does most work and note any sentence that stretches the meaning.

Evidence an auditor or regulator asks for

  • A controlled vocabulary entry for subsymbolic AI with the citation 3.1.34, an owner and a review date.
    An auditor can check that the term is controlled rather than assumed.
  • An AI system inventory field that records the entry for each system, with its owner.
    Shows subsymbolic AI in use in the artefact the firm relies on, not only in a glossary.
  • A policy or procedure sentence that uses the entry in this sense.
    The policy borrows the word but not the boundary, so a supplier system and an in-house model are treated as the same kind of thing.
Ask your teamWho owns subsymbolic AI in the vocabulary, and when was it last reviewed?

Common gaps this page catches

  • subsymbolic AI is used in the AI vocabulary a policy reaches for first without a written definition, so two teams can mean different things.
  • A local synonym has grown up beside the entry and the two are now used interchangeably.

What to prepare before the amendment lands

Put subsymbolic AI on the agenda of the next AI governance meeting with two questions: where is it used, and what would show it is used correctly? Record the answers as actions.

How to test it here

Take one live artefact rather than a template, find the sentence or field where subsymbolic AI is used, and put this page beside it. Record the answer, the artefact and the date, because that record is the evidence and a glossary entry on its own is only an intention.

What this page does not claim

The page does not reproduce the standard, certify the firm or predict the wording the amendment will use; it states subsymbolic AI at the claim level "definition" and stops where the public record stops.

Common questions

What does subsymbolic AI mean in ISO 22989?
AI built on techniques and models that encode information implicitly, learned from experience or raw data
What evidence should we keep for 3.1.34?
A controlled vocabulary entry for subsymbolic AI with the citation 3.1.34, an owner and a review date. An AI system inventory field that records the entry for each system, with its owner.
Is subsymbolic AI a requirement?
No: subsymbolic AI is a definition or clause of a terminology standard, and it becomes binding only when a firm writes it into a policy, a contract or a procedure, or when another standard incorporates it.

Related units

Source. ISO/IEC 22989:2022, Clause 3.1.34, Terms and definitions. Open the ISO public entry. Retrieved 21 October 2026.

https://www.iso.org/obp/ui/en/#iso:std:iso-iec:22989:ed-1:v1:en

ISO catalogue record 88145, the amendment status, stage and dates. Catalogue record 74296, the base standard.

Claim level: definition. The definition is in the public preview. This page states it in our own words and does not reproduce the text.

Built from the public ISO record and the public clause 3 entries. No clause text is reproduced. How the record is built.

Last updated: 2026-10-21 · Markdown version · Check your vocabulary