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What is Guardrails?

A plain-English explanation of Guardrails (Guardrails) — what it means, why it matters, and how it is used in AI.

Guardrails
Guardrails
Guardrails are rules, filters, classifiers, or constraints built into an AI system to prevent it from producing harmful, offensive, misleading, or inappropriate outputs.
"A customer service chatbot has guardrails that prevent it from discussing competitors, making medical claims, or generating offensive content."

Also known as: Safety filters, content filters, safety rails, output filters

AlignmentSafetyJailbreak

Why does Guardrails matter?

Guardrails are essential for deploying AI in production environments where unpredictable user inputs could otherwise cause harm.

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