NIST seeks public feedback on draft guidance for AI documentation
The US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has released a draft document proposing templates and guidance for documenting AI datasets and models. Public comments are open until 16 September 2026.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has published an initial draft of its Guidance and Templates for Public-Facing AI Documentation and is inviting public feedback until 16 September 2026. The document is the first release under NIST’s new AI Standards Zero Drafts pilot programme, which aims to accelerate standards development through early stakeholder participation.
The draft proposes practical templates for documenting AI datasets and models in a more consistent and comparable way, while offering guidance on common documentation challenges. According to NIST, standardised documentation can improve transparency and provide organisations, particularly those with limited resources, with a foundation for developing their own documentation practices.
Following the public consultation, NIST plans to refine the draft before submitting it to a standards development organisation as the basis for a voluntary consensus standard. Feedback can be submitted by email, while organisations may also host listening sessions to collect comments.
