Module Check: Tool Sovereignty
This module has covered the full arc of tool sovereignty — from the foundational question of what it means to own versus merely access a tool, through the mechanics of lock-in and switching costs, the real tradeoffs between open and closed AI, the practice of self-hosting, frameworks for evaluating and choosing tools, portability and exit readiness, stack architecture, and resilience design. The module check asks you to think with these ideas, not just recall them. Use the flashcards to sharpen the vocabulary, then work through the quizzes carefully — each one probes a concept that matters in practice.
Flashcards — click each card to reveal the answer
Module Quizzes
A writer uses one AI tool for all her work: drafting, editing, research, and idea generation. The tool stores her work in its proprietary cloud, has no export function, and requires a subscription to access any of her past content. Which dimension of tool ownership is most severely compromised, and what is the practical risk?
A research team has been using a closed AI API for 18 months. They learn the provider is deprecating the model version their analysis pipeline depends on in 90 days. They have never tested an alternative. Which combination of factors most directly explains why 90 days may not be enough time to migrate?
A self-hosted open model and a frontier closed API are both candidates for a legal research task involving confidential attorney-client communications. What is the decisive factor that determines which must be used?
A sovereign stack design specifies that a local 7B open model handles all sensitive tasks, and a cloud frontier model handles tasks requiring high reasoning capability. The local model goes offline due to a hardware failure. According to good resilience design, what should happen?
A developer argues that maintaining exit readiness is wasteful because she has no intention of leaving her current AI provider, which she finds excellent. Which response best addresses this argument?
Which of the following tool evaluation findings is most clearly a green flag for sovereign use?
Module Synthesis
Sovereign Stack Advisor — Full Case Analysis
- You are a tool sovereignty advisor. A client has come to you with the following situation. Apply every concept from this module to produce a complete written assessment and recommendation.
- CLIENT PROFILE:
- A mid-sized investigative journalism nonprofit with 12 journalists and 3 editors. They currently use a single closed AI API provider for all AI-assisted tasks: drafting articles, transcription analysis, document review, research summarization, and social media monitoring. All conversation history and document uploads are stored in the provider's cloud. They have no API access — they use only the web interface. They have no data export and have never tested any alternative. Their monthly subscription is $400. They recently received a notice that the provider is changing its terms of service to include the right to use uploaded documents for model training, with no opt-out available.
- Your assessment must cover:
- 1. DEPENDENCY ANALYSIS: Map their current lock-in across all three categories (technical, data, knowledge). Rate the severity of each from 1-3.
- 2. IMMEDIATE RISK ASSESSMENT: The new terms of service present what specific risk to their journalism work? What journalistic or legal principles are implicated?
- 3. SOVEREIGNTY SCORECARD: Rate their current stack on all four ownership dimensions (control, portability, transparency, continuity) from 1-5 with brief justification.
- 4. RECOMMENDED SOVEREIGN STACK: Design a specific replacement stack that addresses their most critical vulnerabilities. Name specific tools and models appropriate for a small nonprofit. Estimate the cost compared to their current $400/month.
- 5. MIGRATION PLAN: Given that they have no export and no tested alternative, outline a realistic 90-day migration sequence. What must happen first, second, and third? What is the minimum viable state they should reach in 30 days?
- 6. ONGOING SOVEREIGNTY PRACTICES: What three ongoing practices would you require them to maintain to preserve the sovereignty of the new stack?
- Write your response as a formal advisory memo addressed to the nonprofit's executive director. Be specific, be honest about tradeoffs and costs, and be practical — this organization has limited technical staff and a real budget constraint.