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1. Scope
1.1 Purpose
This specification defines the required capabilities, constraints, interfaces, performance thresholds, and verification methods for a United States Technology and Artificial Intelligence System intended to:
1.2 System of Interest
The system of interest is the combined national ecosystem of:
1.3 Basis for Requirements
These requirements are informed by the strongest recurring patterns in leading digital systems: Korea's data-sharing and data-governance approach, Estonia's X-Road and “once-only†architecture, Denmark's national digital identity model, Singapore's implementation-focused National AI Strategy 2.0 and AI Verify framework, and GAO findings on the U.S. federal government’s slow and costly modernization of legacy IT.
2. Applicable and Reference Documents
2.1 Governing Style Reference
2.2 Benchmark and Rationale References
3. Operational Concept
3.1 Concept Summary
The United States shall operate a national technology and AI ecosystem in which:
3.2 Problem Statement Current U.S. performance is weakened by fragmentation, aging systems, inconsistent interoperability, weak public trust, and heavy spending on maintenance instead of transformation. GAO reported that the federal government spends over $100 billion annually on IT and cyber-related investments, with about 80% going to operations and maintenance of existing systems, including legacy systems that increase cost and cybersecurity risk.
4. System Requirements
4.1 Mission and Outcome Requirements
TAI-MIS-001 - Universal Digital Participation The system shall enable every household, business, school, library, and public service organization in the United States to participate in the digital economy and digital government.
Verification: Analysis, Test
TAI-MIS-002 - Public-Benefit Orientation
The system shall be designed to improve measurable public outcomes, including affordability, access, service speed, service quality, productivity, and public trust.
Verification: Analysis, Inspection
TAI-MIS-003 - Rights Preservation
The system shall preserve privacy, due process, civil rights, freedom of expression, and meaningful human recourse.
Verification: Inspection, Analysis
4.2 Broadband and Connectivity Requirements
TAI-INF-001 - Universal Connectivity Baseline
The system shall provide a national broadband baseline adequate for work, education, telehealth, civic participation, and AI-enabled services.
Verification: Test, Analysis
TAI-INF-002 - Affordability
The system shall include permanent affordability mechanisms for low-income households and underserved populations.
Verification: Inspection, Analysis
TAI-INF-003 - Competition
The system shall promote market and policy conditions under which most households have more than one practical high-speed provider option.
Verification: Analysis
TAI-INF-004 - Upgrade Capacity
The system shall support migration to gigabit-capable fixed infrastructure and high-performance mobile access.
Verification: Test, Analysis
TAI-INF-005 - Critical Infrastructure Resilience
The system shall provide backup power, redundancy, cyber resilience, and continuity capability for critical communications infrastructure.
Verification: Inspection, Demonstration, Test
4.3 Digital Identity Requirements
Denmark's public-service model shows the value of a national eID used as the primary key to digital public services, while preserving structured access to public self-service.
TAI-ID-001 - Secure Digital Identity
The system shall provide a secure, privacy-protective digital identity framework for access to government digital services.
Verification: Test, Inspection
TAI-ID-002 - Multi-Factor Authentication
The system shall support multiple secure authentication methods, including device-based and recovery-based methods.
Verification: Test
TAI-ID-003 - Minimal Disclosure
The identity framework shall disclose only the minimum data required for each authorized transaction.
Verification: Inspection, Analysis
TAI-ID-004 - Inclusion
The identity framework shall support people with disabilities, limited English proficiency, low digital literacy, and limited device access.
Verification: Demonstration, Inspection, Test
TAI-ID-005 - Non-Digital Alternative
The system shall preserve secure non-digital access channels for essential services.
Verification: Inspection, Demonstration
4.4 Interoperability and Data Exchange Requirements
Korea's OECD review emphasizes secure data-sharing and reuse under legal and institutional frameworks, while Estonia's X-Road model demonstrates interoperable distributed systems, the once-only principle, and protections for privacy and data integrity.
TAI-DAT-001 - National Interoperability Layer
The system shall provide a secure interoperability layer enabling authorized data exchange across agencies and levels of government.
Verification: Test, Demonstration
TAI-DAT-002 - Once-Only Principle
The system shall prevent agencies from requiring an individual or business to submit information repeatedly when that information is already lawfully available through authorized data exchange.
Verification: Inspection, Demonstration
TAI-DAT-003 - Distributed Architecture
The system shall support interoperable distributed data management rather than requiring a single centralized super-database.
Verification: Inspection, Analysis
TAI-DAT-004 - Auditability
The system shall log data access, use, modification, and transfer events in a tamper-evident manner.
Verification: Test, Inspection
TAI-DAT-005 - User Visibility
The system shall allow individuals to view which authorized entities accessed their personal data and for what approved purpose.
Verification: Demonstration, Test
TAI-DAT-006 - Data Correction
The system shall provide procedures for identifying, contesting, correcting, and propagating corrections to erroneous personal data.
Verification: Demonstration, Inspection
4.5 Digital Government Service Requirements
TAI-SVC-001 - End-to-End Service Delivery
The system shall support end-to-end digital completion of major public services, including application, verification, status tracking, decision, appeal, and record access.
Verification: Demonstration, Test
TAI-SVC-002 - Single Front Door
The system shall provide integrated access to major public services through consolidated user-facing portals.
Verification: Demonstration, Inspection
TAI-SVC-003 - Life-Event Design
The system shall organize priority services around life events such as birth, education, employment, business formation, illness, disability, retirement, and death.
Verification: Inspection, Demonstration
TAI-SVC-004 - Plain Language and Usability
The system shall use plain language, accessible design, and validated user-centered workflows.
Verification: Inspection, Test
TAI-SVC-005 - Proactive Service Delivery
Where legally authorized, the system shall support proactive service initiation using verified existing data.
Verification: Demonstration, Analysis
TAI-SVC-006 - Processing-Time Reduction
The system shall reduce completion time, duplicate data entry, paperwork burden, and avoidable human processing steps.
Verification: Test, Analysis
4.6 AI Governance and Assurance Requirements
Singapore's official AI strategy emphasizes widespread adoption with implementation discipline, while AI Verify provides a structured testing and assurance approach.
TAI-AI-001 - Risk Classification
All government AI systems and all AI systems used in high-impact regulated contexts shall be classified by risk level.
Verification: Inspection
TAI-AI-002 - AI Inventory
The system shall maintain an inventory of AI systems in development, testing, pilot use, and production use.
Verification: Inspection, Analysis
TAI-AI-003 - Pre-Deployment Testing
High-impact AI systems shall undergo documented testing for accuracy, robustness, privacy, security, bias, and foreseeable misuse before operational deployment.
Verification: Test, Inspection
TAI-AI-004 - Red Team Evaluation
Generative, agentic, or decision-support AI systems used in sensitive environments shall undergo adversarial and red-team evaluation.
Verification: Test, Analysis
TAI-AI-005 - Human Accountability
Each high-impact AI deployment shall have a named accountable authority.
Verification: Inspection
TAI-AI-006 - Human Review
Any AI-assisted decision materially affecting rights, benefits, liberty, education, healthcare, employment, or legal status shall provide meaningful human review and appeal.
Verification: Demonstration, Inspection
TAI-AI-007 - Documentation
High-impact AI systems shall have documented intended use, limits, data provenance, evaluation results, monitoring procedures, and rollback triggers.
Verification: Inspection
TAI-AI-008 - Continuous Monitoring
Operational AI systems shall be monitored for drift, degradation, abuse, security compromise, and harmful outputs.
Verification: Test, Analysis
TAI-AI-009 - Incident Reporting
Material AI failures, harmful incidents, privacy breaches, and major security events shall be reported, investigated, and remediated.
Verification: Inspection, Demonstration
TAI-AI-010 - Procurement Assurance
Government procurement of AI systems shall require auditability, security evidence, documentation, and assurance artifacts.
Verification: Inspection
4.7 Cybersecurity and Resilience Requirements
GAO continues to find that U.S. legacy modernization delays create cost, schedule, cybersecurity, and privacy risks.
TAI-SEC-001 - Secure by Design
All critical digital and AI systems shall use secure-by-design and secure-by-default principles.
Verification: Inspection, Test
TAI-SEC-002 - Least Privilege and Segmentation
The system shall enforce least-privilege access, network segmentation, and role-based data authorization.
Verification: Test, Inspection
TAI-SEC-003 - Encryption
The system shall encrypt sensitive data in transit and at rest using approved methods.
Verification: Test
TAI-SEC-004 - Continuity of Operations
Critical services shall maintain tested continuity, backup, disaster recovery, and restoration procedures.
Verification: Demonstration, Test
TAI-SEC-005 - Supply Chain Protection
The system shall manage hardware, software, model, and data supply-chain risks.
Verification: Inspection, Analysis
TAI-SEC-006 - Legacy Retirement Schedule
Agencies shall establish and execute funded schedules for retiring or replacing obsolete legacy systems.
Verification: Inspection, Analysis
4.8 Workforce, Education, and Adoption Requirements
TAI-WRK-001 - Digital Literacy
The system shall support universal digital literacy instruction sufficient for safe and productive participation in modern civic and economic life.
Verification: Analysis, Inspection
TAI-WRK-002 - AI Literacy
The system shall provide age-appropriate AI literacy across K-12, higher education, workforce training, and adult education.
Verification: Inspection, Analysis
TAI-WRK-003 - Teacher and Instructor Readiness
The system shall provide educators with training and support for effective and responsible use of technology and AI.
Verification: Inspection, Demonstration
TAI-WRK-004 - Workforce Reskilling
The system shall provide reskilling and upskilling pathways for workers affected by digital and AI transformation.
Verification: Analysis, Inspection
TAI-WRK-005 - Public-Sector Technical Capability
Government agencies shall maintain sufficient internal technical expertise to procure, evaluate, govern, and oversee digital and AI systems competently.
Verification: Inspection, Analysis
4.9 Competition, Portability, and Consumer Protection Requirements
TAI-MKT-001 - Open Standards
The system shall prefer open standards, documented interfaces, and portable data formats.
Verification: Inspection
TAI-MKT-002 - Data Portability
Individuals and organizations shall be able to export and transfer their core digital records and service relationships without unreasonable barriers.
Verification: Demonstration, Test
TAI-MKT-003 - Anti-Lock-In
Public technology investments shall avoid architectural dependency on single vendors when functionally equivalent open or portable alternatives are feasible.
Verification: Analysis, Inspection
TAI-MKT-004 - Transparent Consumer Information
The system shall provide clear service, pricing, and performance disclosures for consumer-facing digital infrastructure and services where public policy or public subsidy is involved.
Verification: Inspection
5. External Interface Requirements
5.1 User Interfaces
The system shall provide accessible interfaces for:
The interfaces shall comply with accessibility requirements, plain-language design, and multilingual support.
5.2 System Interfaces The system shall provide secure machine-to-machine interfaces using documented APIs, identity controls, audit logging, and common data standards.
5.3 Oversight Interfaces The system shall provide dashboards, logs, and reporting interfaces sufficient for inspection, audit, certification, incident review, and public accountability.
6. Design Constraints
6.1 Legal and Constitutional Constraints
The system shall operate within constitutional protections, statutory privacy limits, due process requirements, and civil-rights obligations.
6.2 Architectural Constraints
The system shall be modular, interoperable, auditable, and capable of incremental deployment and replacement.
6.3 Human-Centered Constraint
The system shall not make essential services effectively unavailable to people who cannot or do not use advanced digital tools.
6.4 Trust Constraint
The system shall not require blind trust in opaque AI or administrative automation where rights or material interests are at stake.
7. Verification Methods
The following verification methods apply:
No requirement shall be considered satisfied until the designated verification evidence is complete and recorded.
8. Key Performance Parameters and Measures of Effectiveness
8.1 Key Performance Parameters
The system shall track, at minimum:
8.2 Threshold and Objective Concept
Each metric should have:
9. Traceability Concept
Each requirement in this specification should trace to one or more of the following:
Example trace logic:
TAI-DAT-002 Once-Only Principle traces to public burden reduction, interoperability, and best-practice benchmarks from Estonia and Korea.
TAI-ID-001 Secure Digital Identity traces to secure public-service access and Denmark's digital-service model.
TAI-AI-003 Pre-Deployment Testing traces to trustworthy deployment and Singapore's AI assurance emphasis.
TAI-SEC-006 Legacy Retirement Schedule traces to GAO-documented modernization delays and risk reduction.
10. Plain-English Summary of What This Specification Requires
This specification requires the United States to build a technology and AI system that is:
It is designed to correct the specific U.S. pattern of spending heavily while remaining burdened by fragmented services and aging systems, and to move the country closer to the practical strengths demonstrated by Korea, Estonia, Denmark, and Singapore.