In Plain English: Allowable

Let me translate a grants word for you: allowable.

In federal grants work, a cost was allowable if the rules said yes to it — reasonable in amount, connected to the program's purpose, and not on the prohibited list. "Allowable" was the whole game. If a cost wasn't allowable, it didn't matter how useful it seemed. It came out of somebody's pocket, not the grant's.

AI needs the word "allowable" just as badly.

Right now most organizations have no list of allowable AI uses. Employees paste whatever they want into whatever tool is handy. Nobody decided what's permitted, what's off-limits, and who decides. Then everyone's surprised when something sensitive ends up somewhere it shouldn't be.

So borrow the grants playbook. Write down your allowable uses: these tasks, these tools, this kind of data — yes. Everything else — not until it's reviewed. Keep the list short enough to remember and review it twice a year.

One word, written down, understood by everyone. That's what "allowable" did for grants. It can do the same for your AI.

I explain frameworks; I don't give legal counsel.