NUEN Ethical AI Policy

NUEN® (Nourishing Environments)
Operated by: UTA Architects Ltd
Last updated: 6.3.2026

NUEN® ("we") is a trading name of UTA Architects Ltd and stands for “Nourishing Environments”. We are committed to ethical AI development.

This policy describes our ethical development principles for NUEN AI - which resides at chat.nuen.ai - and is part of the NUEN web platform (www.nuen.ai). By utilising NUEN AI you are accepting and consenting to the practices described in this policy.

1. Purpose and Context

NUEN is a web platform providing specialist healthy building related architectural products, services and digital tools. We advocate for health-promoting environments, environmental sustainability and high-quality architectural design, as well as for inclusivity, diversity, accessibility and a ‘systems design’ approach to building design. We seek to raise awareness and share educational information on these matters also.

NUEN AI is a purpose-built healthy buildings specialist AI system developed by architects & team of consultants and assistants. It is designed to make science-backed, architecturally structured healthy building knowledge more accessible to individuals, professionals, organisations and communities.

NUEN AI operates at the intersection of:

  • Public health

  • Environmental health sciences

  • Professional architectural services

  • Behaviour, wellbeing and mental health

  • Building performance

  • Environmental sustainability

  • Urban planning

  • Emerging AI and digital tools

This policy explains how we safeguard the work in this sensitive context.

NUEN AI systems are designed, developed, deployed and monitored with the following principles in mind:

  • Human-centered

  • Professionally responsible

  • Transparent

  • Secure

  • Fair and inclusive

  • Legally compliant

  • Environmentally conscious

NUEN AI development follows UNESCO’s ‘Ethics of Artificial Intelligence’ recommendations.

2. Scope

This policy applies to:

  • NUEN AI public-facing functions

  • Any public-facing AI-enabled automation integrated into www.nuen.ai, chat.nuen.ai or quiz.nuen.ai

  • Data storing and processing associated with NUEN AI systems

3. Guiding Principles

NUEN’s Ethical AI governance is built on the following core principles:

3.1 Do No Harm

NUEN AI has been designed to first attempt to determine any harm buildings and environments might do to humans or the natural world, to help prevent any harm and to help mitigate any risks.

NUEN AI should not be used to replace any risk assessment processes but to add to those.

3.2 Human Health First

NUEN AI systems are designed and instructed to prioritise human wellbeing and safety. The AI is explicitly prohibited from giving health advice, mental health advice or lifestyle advice, unless it’s related to buildings, the built environment, city planning or architectural project management. Where it is necessary to specific health conditions or symptoms to determine whether a building or a space might be a contributing factor, the AI has been instructed to always seek advice from a medical professional.

NUEN AI has been instructed to not discuss emergencies, but to answer that appropriate emergency services should be contacted instead.

NUEN AI does not optimise for engagement at the expense of user wellbeing.

3.3 Professional Integrity

NUEN AI development is architect-led but, being an AI, it is by nature a tool with a degree of autonomy. We do our best to train NUEN AI so that its outputs are not misrepresented as regulated professional services. The NUEN AI interface has a disclaimer explaining that due to the nature of AI it can make mistakes and all facts should be verified. We provide a human fact-checking service by qualified architects or relevant professionals for any content created by NUEN AI, although it will be necessary to charge a fee for this service.

3.4 Transparency

We believe that AI tools should be transparent and will make a clear differentiation between NUEN AI created information and human-verified information, so that there is no ambiguity for our users when they are accessing reliable, professionally-verified information and when they are accessing ‘information only’ AI outputs.

We are actively researching this rapidly-evolving field and attempting to comply with best practice recommendations. We will update information here, as relevant, and in the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) section of this website (coming soon).

4. Intended Use and Limitations

NUEN AI is designed as:

  • An educational tool

  • A design exploration assistant

  • A healthy building guidance system

  • A structured knowledge interface

It is not:

  • A substitute for regulated architectural services

  • A substitute for medical advice

  • A substitute for structural engineering, legal or planning advice

  • A certified building compliance authority

We attempt to make it clear to all users that all outputs are provided as guidance only and must not be used in real-life scenarios or relied upon for important decisions. We do this via disclaimers and in the instructions and training materials for NUEN AI. NUEN AI outputs can also be transformed into formal project-guidance documents but only if by fact-checked by the NUEN human team and finalised for use on a specific project.

High-risk content areas (e.g., medical advice, structural safety, fire safety, complex regulatory interpretation) are prohibited, limited, redirected or accompanied by recommendations to consult appropriate professionals.

5. Data Governance, Training Materials and Intellectual Property (IP) Protection

5.1 Proprietary Training Data

NUEN AI is trained on:

  • NUEN-created proprietary architectural methodologies

  • Healthy building research references

  • Project experience-derived insights

  • Curated industry knowledge, including latest innovation

  • UK-specific architectural best practice information

  • Articles published on the NUEN website

NUEN AI does not have access to project-specific confidential materials or copyrighted data belonging to other organisations or individuals, unless consent has been explicitly provided by appropriate individuals and organisations. NUEN AI also does not have access to copyrighted books, scientific papers, reports or other materials. Where books or other such resources are mentioned by the AI, the original authors are credited and, where appropriate, linked to.

While NUEN AI is in ‘development mode’ the training is ongoing. If you notice any omissions, missing information or other issues, please notify us immediately.

5.2 Data Protection

NUEN complies with:

  • UK GDPR

  • Data Protection Act 2018

User data is:

  • Processed lawfully

  • Stored securely

  • Minimised to necessary scope

  • Not sold to third parties

NUEN AI training does not use confidential client project data without anonymisation and appropriate consent.

Refer to the NUEN Privacy Policy also.

6. Bias, Fairness and Inclusion

NUEN acknowledges that AI systems may reflect:

  • Bias in ‘base layer’ training materials (e.g. in OpenAI training)

  • Cultural assumptions

  • Incomplete datasets

To mitigate this:

  • NUEN AI proprietary training data is curated by qualified professionals.

  • High-level instructions to NUEN AI include avoidance of discrimination.

  • NUEN AI training materials include education on avoidance of discrimination, bias, unconscious bias and advocation for inclusiveness, diversity and accessibility.

  • Inclusivity categories are embedded in the NUEN Healthy Building Categories.

  • Outputs are regularly reviewed and iteratively improved.

  • User and test user feedback is invited.

NUEN team will continue to train NUEN AI to reject discriminatory outputs and will monitor for unintended bias.

Despite these efforts both AI and humans can make mistakes or the training data can have gaps - therefore please inform us of any concerns as soon as practical. If you would like to test NUEN AI for specific type of bias or discrimination, please contact us and we will work with you to test this.

7. Safety and Professional Boundaries

NUEN AI is designed to:

  • Avoid deterministic or absolute claims

  • Avoid promising guaranteed health outcomes

  • Avoid prescriptive construction instructions where safety risk is high

  • Avoid replacing statutory Building Control advice

  • Avoid discussing active emergency situations

Users are prompted to seek:

  • Medical professionals for health concerns and medication

  • Qualified Engineers for engineering advice and calculations

  • Qualified Architects for project-specific advice

  • Relevant emergency services for any active emergency situations

  • Etc.

We attempt to do our best that all NUEN AI users understand that NUEN AI should be used in addition to professional services, not to replace them.

8. Security and Technical Safeguards

Security measures include:

  • Secure hosting environments

  • Access controls

  • Niche and defined scope on what the AI is allowed to discuss and is trained on

  • Proprietary and specialist training data (curated by professionals) to reduce hallucination

  • Controlled high-level instructions to the AI and structured ‘modes’ (drop-down menu options)

  • Backup, scalability and continuity strategies

  • Cyber-security strategies

  • Regular risk assessment and mitigation

9. Environmental Responsibility

AI systems consume energy.

NUEN commits to doing our best to:

  • Monitor computational efficiency

  • Avoid unnecessary model calls

  • Using AI where it genuinely adds value

  • Allow the AI to only search its database for the most relevant information, to reduce processing loads

  • Support low-carbon digital infrastructure where feasible

We are hoping that any energy-use harm from NUEN AI computations could be mitigated by NUEN’s efforts to advocate for low-energy, sustainable and health-promoting building practices.

As a healthy buildings organisation, we recognise digital sustainability as part of planetary health responsibility and we will continue to seek ways to keep NUEN AI as low-energy and environmentally sustainable as possible.

If you have any suggestions on how we can improve our sustainability and energy-performance, please let us know.

10. User Feedback and Continuous Improvement

NUEN AI is designed as a continually improving ecosystem.

We:

  • Collect user feedback

  • Monitor usage patterns

  • Refine NUEN AI instructions and methodologies

  • Continuously update and add to training materials

  • Test ‘edge case’, risky or unusual usage patterns

  • Track emerging regulation

Users can report concerns via: info@nuen.ai.

11. Intellectual Property and Ethical Use

NUEN AI contains proprietary methods, structured high-level instructions and curated architectural systems.

Users must not:

  • Reverse engineer proprietary training logic

  • Republish outputs as regulated professional certification

  • Use outputs for unlawful or unsafe construction

All materials on NUEN websites, including NUEN AI responses, are the copyright of NUEN and UTA Architects Ltd in accordance with the ‘Copyright, Designs, and Patents Act 1988’. All rights are reserved.

NUEN AI outputs can be formatted into NUEN-branded or white-labelled documents or reports in return for an appropriate fee paid to our team for data checking. We also provide API licenses for access to the NUEN proprietary healthy buildings structured vector database. If you are interested in purchasing these products or services, please get in touch via info@nuen.ai.

12. Alignment with Broader Ethical AI Standards

This policy aligns with widely recognised ethical AI themes including:

  • Transparency

  • Accountability

  • Fairness

  • Privacy

  • Safety

13. Changes to this Policy

We may update this Policy from time to time. We will provide notice of any material changes by posting the new Policy on our website and indicating the date of revision.

14. Contact

If you have any questions about this Policy, or any suggestions, please contact us at info@nuen.ai.