Methodology
How the AI synthesis is kept honest.
SHENGO's synthesis layer turns hundreds of submissions into a policy briefing. This page explains exactly how that happens, what keeps it honest, and what a ministry can verify for itself.
TESTING PHASE VERSION 0.9 · JUNE 2026The three-stage pipeline
No synthesis is published from a single AI pass. Every consultation runs through three distinct stages, each producing an artefact that is retained and auditable.
Stage A — Structured draft
Submissions are clustered by theme, stakeholder type and position. The model produces a first synthesis draft that must cite the submissions supporting each theme. Submissions are processed in anonymised form: the synthesis layer never sees names, emails or phone numbers, which remain on in-country infrastructure.
Stage B — Adversarial review
A second, independent pass challenges the draft: Which positions were under-weighted? Which minority views were absorbed into a majority theme? Which claims lack supporting submissions? The output is a written critique, retained alongside the draft.
Stage C — Verified final synthesis
A final pass reconciles the draft and the critique. The result is reviewed by a human domain expert, who approves, annotates or rejects it. Only after expert approval does the synthesis reach the consultation record, with the reviewer's decision and notes attached.
What keeps it honest
- Raw submissions stay visible. Every synthesis is displayed beside the full set of raw submissions it summarises. Officers can always check the source.
- Dissent is flagged, never lost. Minority and dissenting positions are a mandatory section of every synthesis, not a footnote.
- Independent bias audit. An academic partner audits synthesis outputs for systematic bias — by region, language, and stakeholder type — and the audit findings are published.
- Immutable record. Stage A, B and C artefacts are all retained. A reviewer can reconstruct how the final synthesis was reached.
- Human accountability. A named expert reviewer signs off every synthesis. AI assists; it does not decide.
What a ministry can verify
| Question | Where the answer lives |
|---|---|
| Who submitted, and when? | Timestamped, cryptographically logged submission record |
| Was my stakeholder group represented? | Theme clusters carry stakeholder-type counts |
| What did the AI change between drafts? | Retained Stage A/B/C artefacts |
| Who approved the synthesis? | Expert reviewer decision attached to the record |
| Is the process biased? | Published independent audit reports |
Questions
For the full technical methodology, including prompt-engineering controls and the data-sovereignty architecture, write to hello@shengo.com.