Model Card

A model card is a structured document describing an AI model's purpose, training data, performance, limitations, and ethical considerations.

What is Model Card?

Model cards were proposed by Mitchell et al. in 2018 and have become a de facto standard for transparency. A model card typically lists the model's intended use, out-of-scope use, training data summary, evaluation results across relevant slices, known biases, and contact information. Hugging Face, Google, and most major model providers publish model cards alongside releases. The EU AI Act requires similar documentation for general-purpose AI models.

How does Model Card apply to enterprise AI?

Enterprises building on top of foundation models should keep their own model cards for fine-tuned models and downstream systems, and they should require model cards from vendors before integration.