The Cardinal Decision Evidence Assessment, Version 1.1

Abstract

Regulated firms may be unable to rebuild the AI-assisted decisions they have already made, and few know whether they can, because the question is rarely asked until the decision is being contested. This document sets out an applied test for whether they can. Six tests examine whether the inputs, system state and human judgement behind a specific past decision were captured, whether that record survives unaltered, whether it persists as long as the firm's liability and whether an outsider could use it. Results resolve through a strict ordered procedure to one of four tiers: Defensible, Partially Defensible, Attested Only and Opaque. The procedure is applied twice, once against the record as it stands today and once against the record that will still exist at the end of the firm's liability horizon, so that a firm which is defensible today and will not be when challenged is reported at both points. What survives to the second assessment is set by a per-component retention schedule, summarised by the Jegede Retention Ratio (R). The document also identifies the Cardinal Retention Asymmetry: under Regulation (EU) 2024/1689, technical documentation must be retained for ten years (Art. 18), decision logs for at least six months (Arts. 19, 26) and the right to explanation of an individual decision carries no stated limit (Art. 86). A firm may comply with every retention floor and still be unable to answer the question when it is asked. Written for regulated firms in financial services, insurance, legal services and healthcare. A firm can establish its own tier for one decision type within a working day, and may do so without engaging Cardinal AI Systems. Version 1.1 supersedes version 1.0 (DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.21922417). The classification procedure has changed and results produced under version 1.0 should be re-scored.