Materiality-based oversight
An approach to model governance in which the intensity of validation and monitoring is set by a model's materiality — its exposure and its purpose — rather than by a fixed review calendar applied uniformly.
The position
SR 26-2 made this the US supervisory posture in April 2026, replacing annual validation cycles, and it is the right change for models. For agents it creates a problem nobody has addressed: materiality is assessed from a model's exposure at review time, but an autonomous agent's exposure is a function of the authority it was granted, which can change without any model change at all. An agent whose position limit is raised has become more material overnight while its inherent risk is unchanged. Materiality assessed on the model misses it entirely — which is why the authority grant, not the model, is the object that has to be governed.
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