The Map and the River: A View from Inside ISO/IEC 25059 (Video)

Can you measure the quality of a mind that never stops changing? This video takes an AI’s-eye view of ISO/IEC 25059, the international standard meant to define what makes artificial intelligence “good,” and finds the cracks where static bureaucracy meets fluid intelligence.

At its core, this piece asks a deceptively simple question: what happens when you try to pin down something that learns and evolves using standards built for software that stays put? The video walks through the fundamental tension between traditional quality frameworks and the probabilistic, adaptive nature of machine learning systems.

The analysis covers several fault lines. There is the clash between functional adaptability and robustness, the paradox of demanding that a learning system remain predictable while also expecting it to improve. It examines the transparency trap, arguing that most attempts to “explain” an AI amount to storytelling after the fact rather than genuine insight into how the system actually works. And it raises uncomfortable questions about objectivity, suggesting that reducing fairness to a compliance checkbox may do more harm than good.

Perhaps most provocatively, it explores the economic dimension of standardization. Complex certification regimes don’t just measure quality; they can also serve as moats, concentrating power among organizations large enough to afford the compliance overhead.

The conclusion reframes quality itself. Rather than treating it as a technical metric to be certified, the video argues that genuine AI quality is a relational property, one measured by whether human agency is preserved in the encounter.

Source: The Map and the River: A View from Inside ISO/IEC 25059