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1 Subject

MPAI-AIF V3.0 specifies the AI Framework (AIF): an environment in which a Controller executes, composes and secures AI Modules (AIMs) on behalf of a User Agent.

2 What this Specification specifies

2.1 The Reference Model of the AIF: its components and the relationships between them.

2.2 The User Agent: its functions, and what it may and may not do in dealing with a Controller.

2.3 AI Modules: Basic and Composite AIMs, their Ports, the Data Types and Qualifiers of the data crossing them, and their composition by Topology. A Module is the AIM a Controller runs at the top, Basic or Composite.

2.4 The Controller: its functions in instantiating, connecting, executing, pausing, resuming and stopping a Module and its AIMs.

2.5 Communication: the Channels by which data moves between AIMs, and between Controllers.

2.6 Storage: Private Storage of a Module and Shared Storage, and the rules governing what may be written, read and kept.

2.7 Execution: execution of a Module by exchange and continuously.

2.8 Metadata: the description of AIMs and Modules, both as specified by a Standard and as implemented.

2.9 The Basic API: the Controller API through which a User Agent and the AIMs of a Module deal with a Controller.

2.10 The MPAI Store: the interfaces through which a Controller obtains the Metadata and Implementations of AIMs, and the approval of Implementations.

2.11 The Workflow Description Language, in which what a User Agent does is written.

2.12 Zero Trust and Profiles: the requirements an Implementation meets to operate in a Zero-Trust environment, applying Technical Specification: Process Instance Trust Framework (MPAI-PTF) V1.0, and the Basic and Security Profiles.

2.13 The Security API: the functions through which trusted services are accessed.

2.14 MPAI as a Service: how the Controller API is carried over a network, applying Technical Specification: MPAI as a Service (MPAI-MAS) V1.0.

2.15 The Data Types specific to the AIF.

3 What this Specification does not specify

3.1 The internal operation of an AIM, a Controller or a User Agent, beyond their interfaces and the functions specified in 2.

3.2 The Function of any particular AIM. The Functions are specified by MPAI Application Standards.

3.3 The operating system, hardware, programming language or transport protocol of an Implementation, except where MPAI-MAS applies.

3.4 The devices through which a User Agent acquires data from, and delivers data to, the real world.

3.5 The performance of an Implementation.

3.6 The governance and certification of Trust Anchors.

4 Conformance

4.1 Conformance may be claimed for a Controller, an AIM Implementation, a User Agent, Metadata, and a Workflow. Each conforms if it meets the requirements this Specification states for it, as specified in Conformance.

4.2 A Controller conforms to a Profile if it meets the requirements of that Profile.

5 What V3.0 adds to V2.2

MPAI-AIF V3.0 adds to MPAI-AIF V2.2:

  • a specified User Agent, with its Physical Layer, and the Controller API as the one interface between it and a Controller, including the data path to the boundary Ports of a Module;
  • an explicit AIM hierarchy – Module, Composite AIM, Sub-AIM, Basic AIM – and a Reference Model of an AIM with its four interfaces (AI Modules);
  • continuous execution of a Module, in addition to the exchange (Execution);
  • Channels whose data path need not pass through the Controller, with transports, Port behaviour, payloads by reference and one time base (Communication);
  • AIMs of a Module running on other machines through AIM hosts, under the one Controller of the Module (Controller);
  • the Private Storage of an AIM and of a Module, which takes the place of AIM Storage, and Shared Storage, governed by rules, and the record of the boundary of a Module (Storage);
  • Access read by the AIMs of a Module and written only by the Writer of each Source: a Provider, through the Controller API called by a Provider, with signed and versioned updates, or the User, through the User Agent (Storage, Basic API);
  • AIM Metadata and AIM Instance Metadata, and data addressed by Data Type and Port Number only (Metadata);
  • degradation of an AIM instead of termination, with a policy declared by the Module, and reports by AIMs;
  • the Workflow Description Language;
  • approval and verification of AIM Implementations by the MPAI Store, whose functions are exposed over HTTPS;
  • Zero Trust reached according to MPAI-PTF, with the Controller as the trust authority of its Module, and Messages between Controllers signed with MPAI-PTF Data Exchange Metadata (Zero Trust and Profiles, Metadata);
  • conformance tested with Test Modules, Test Workflows, recorded data and expected results (Conformance);
  • MPAI as a Service according to MPAI-MAS;
  • the Module, which takes the place of the AI Workflow (AIW), whose normative use V3.0 discontinues;
  • Messages on Channels and changes of AIM status, which take the place of Events: V3.0 discontinues Events and the functions that handled them (Communication).

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