CONCEPT
The Capability-Sensitive Framework for AI
The 2025 operational proposal by Saptasomabuddha and colleagues to evaluate AI systems by their impact on capability floors and life-plan alignment — the most developed technical application of Sen's framework to AI governance.
The Capability-Sensitive Framework is the most technically developed proposal for operationalizing Sen's capability approach in AI governance. Published in AI and Ethics in 2025 by Saptasomabuddha and colleagues, it specifies two normative guardrails for AI deployment: a capability floor, which ensures no individual is pushed below thresholds for essential freedoms by an AI system, and a life-plan ceiling, which guarantees people retain viable paths toward meaningful goals. These guardrails are operationalized through quantitative metrics — the Capability-Coverage Ratio and the Life-Plan Alignment Score — computable for specific AI systems in specific deployment contexts. The framework demonstrates that capability-sensitive AI evaluation is technically feasible; whether it is institutionally achievable remains open.
In The You On AI Field Guide
The framework is model-agnostic, meaning it can be applied to any AI system regardless of technical architecture. It is context-sensitive, producing different evaluations of the same system in different institutional contexts. And it is human-centric in Sen's specific sense: