Statement
P07 Trust is designed
A good tool explains enough for the person to act without fear.
Tension
Explanation
Uncertainty slows action. With AI, moreover, a fluent response may hide its limits and make it difficult to distinguish a fact from an inference.
Go deeper: Tension
Uncertainty holds action back. With AI, trust additionally requires distinguishing facts, inferences, proposals and actions already carried out. A fluent response cannot conceal its limits.
Meaning
Explanation
Trust is not promised: it emerges from predictable behavior. The product shows its state, anticipates consequences, confirms outcomes, and offers a way to recover.
Go deeper: Meaning
Trust arises when the product shows its state, anticipates consequences, confirms results and offers recovery. It does not rest on general promises, but on predictable behavior.
Consequence
Explanation
Recommendations, automated decisions, and confirmed outcomes are clearly distinguished. Before an irreversible action, the person knows what is going to change and, when reasonable, may undo it or return to a safe state.
Go deeper: Consequence
Show what is happening, what will change and when an action will be irreversible.
Allow people to undo, correct or return to a safe state where that is reasonable.
Clearly differentiate recommendations, automatic decisions and confirmed results.
Example
This site labels each block according to what it is—canonical text, explanation, example, or technical status—so that the person reading knows what they are citing.
Counterexample
Presenting an independent adaptation as official, published, or endorsed by a company that does not endorse it.
Sign of non-compliance. An agent that reports "done" without showing what changed forces people to trust its tone rather than the evidence.
Decision test
These questions check whether trust rests on evidence or tone.
Does the person know what will happen before confirming?
Can they verify what the system did and why?
Is there a way to recover that is proportionate to the risk?
Source
Manifesto core v2.1, section PRINCIPLE 7 · P07. Download the core