Top 4 AI Guardrails: Weights and Biases & NVIDIA NeMo

As AI becomes more integrated into business operations, the impact of security failures increases. Most AI-related breaches result from inadequate oversight, access controls, and governance rather than technical flaws.

According to IBM, the average cost of a data breach in the US reached $10.22 million, mainly due to regulatory fines and detection costs.¹ Nearly all AI-related breaches occurred in environments without proper access controls, underscoring the risks of poorly governed AI deployments.

AI guardrails address this gap by defining clear boundaries for AI use, supporting regulatory compliance and accountability, and enabling responsible long-term adoption.

Explore how AI guardrails operate, their architecture, and what types of threats they protect against.

Top 4 AI guardrails

Note: The table is sorted alphabetically, except for our sponsor at the top, which includes its links.

Feature comparison

Weights & Biases Guardrails

Weights & Biases Guardrails is part of the Weave observability platform and is designed for teams that want AI safety tightly integrated with system performance monitoring and evaluation workflows.

How it works

Guardrails are implemented as “scorers” that wrap AI functions. These scorers can run synchronously to block harmful outputs or asynchronously to enable continuous monitoring.

Key features

• Toxicity detection across multiple dimensions, such as race, gender, religion, and violence.
• Detection of sensitive information and personally identifiable information using Microsoft Presidio.
• Hallucination detection for misleading outputs in AI-generated content.
• Integration with retrieval pipelines, tool calls, and structured data.
• Supports access controls and configurable thresholds to reduce false positives.

Governance and limitations

• Primarily Python-based, with limited support for other languages.
• Monitors run in a managed environment, which may not suit all security controls or deployment models.

Figure 1: This image shows Weights & Biases Guardrails visualizing an LLM conversation trace, where each model call is evaluated by multiple automated scorers (such as toxicity, hate speech, PII, and factuality) to monitor AI behavior and safety across a support-agent workflow.

Llama Guard

Llama Guard is an open-weight safety classifier model that can be self-hosted or deployed through cloud providers. Unlike API-based services, it operates as a language model that classifies conversations directly.

How it works

The model receives a formatted conversation and generates a “safe” or “unsafe” label along with category codes. This design allows it to be integrated anywhere in the AI deployment pipeline, including edge environments.

Key features

• Detects 14 categories, including hate speech, privacy violations, dangerous advice, and election misinformation.
• Supports fine-tuning via LoRA adapters for domain-specific risks.
• Can be deployed on-premise to protect sensitive data and proprietary data.
• Suitable for organizations concerned about data leakage and breach costs.

Governance and limitations

• No native detection of PII or sensitive data without additional tools.
• Performance may degrade for categories requiring real-time knowledge.
• Susceptible to adversarial techniques without complementary security controls.

Figure 2: Graph showing instructions for Llama Guard prompt and response classification example.²

NVIDIA NeMo Guardrails

NVIDIA NeMo Guardrails is a programmable framework designed for enterprises that need fine-grained control over AI agents, multi-turn conversations, and critical workflows.

How it works

The system introduces multiple “rails” that operate at different stages of the AI pipeline, including input, output, dialog, retrieval, and execution. Developers define behavior using Colang, a domain-specific language that enforces procedural controls and conversation rules.

Key features

• Granular control over model behavior and dialog flows.
• Built-in support for jailbreak detection and prompt injection mitigation.
• Designed for AI applications that must align with compliance frameworks such as the EU AI Act.
• Suitable for AI governance programs requiring conformity assessments and human oversight.

Governance and limitations

• Requires more engineering effort and infrastructure than API-based tools.
• Self-check mechanisms depend on the underlying AI models and training data.
• Higher operational complexity compared to stateless classifiers.

See the video below to learn how NeMo Guardrails works.

OpenAI Moderation API

OpenAI Moderation API is a stateless classification service designed to identify harmful content in AI-generated outputs. It is commonly used as a baseline for AI guardrails in generative AI applications built on large language models.

How it works

The API is accessed through a REST endpoint. Text or images are submitted, and the system returns boolean flags and probability scores for each safety category. These scores allow teams to define their own risk tolerance by setting thresholds rather than relying on fixed rules.

Key features

• Detects 13 categories of harmful content, including hate speech, violence, sexual content, self-harm, and illicit activities.
• Probability-based scoring enables monitoring mechanisms in addition to hard blocking.

Governance and limitations

• No support for fine-tuning or custom categories.
• Does not detect personally identifiable information or sensitive data exposure.
• Best suited for standard AI use cases with limited regulatory requirements and rapid deployment needs.

What are AI guardrails?

AI guardrails are the set of technical and procedural controls that define how artificial intelligence systems are allowed to behave. Their role is to keep AI models, including large language models and other generative AI technologies, within acceptable boundaries set by organizations, regulators, and societal norms.

Rather than acting as a single filter, AI guardrails operate throughout the full AI lifecycle, from training data and model behavior to deployment, monitoring, and human oversight. They are designed to reduce AI risk by preventing unsafe or misleading outputs, protecting sensitive data, and ensuring AI use aligns with regulatory requirements and internal policies.

In practice, AI guardrails shape how AI systems respond to user prompts, what data AI tools can access, and which actions AI agents are permitted to perform in critical workflows.

How do they work?

AI guardrails work by applying controls at multiple points in the AI lifecycle, acknowledging that AI systems do not behave deterministically and that the same input may not always produce the same output. Because of this variability, guardrails rely on layered checks rather than a single enforcement point. At a high level, guardrails operate through:

Pre-deployment alignment:

• Training data is reviewed to reduce bias, remove sensitive information, and ensure relevance to the intended use case.
• Techniques such as Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback (RLHF) are used to influence model behavior and align AI-generated outputs with human expectations and ethical standards.
• Acceptance criteria define what constitutes acceptable and unacceptable behavior before AI deployment.

Runtime enforcement:

• User prompts are inspected to detect prompt injection, unsafe content, or attempts to bypass restrictions.
• Access controls limit which data sources, tools, and actions AI agents can use.
• In workflows that rely on Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), external knowledge sources are constrained to trusted datasets to improve accuracy and reduce misleading outputs.

Post-generation validation:

• AI-generated content is checked for harmful outputs, sensitive data exposure, and regulatory violations.
• Flagged content may be blocked, corrected, or escalated for human oversight.
• Monitoring mechanisms record decisions and outcomes to support audits, risk assessments, and continuous improvement.

Together, these layers ensure guardrails work as an adaptive system that evolves as AI behavior, usage patterns, and threats change.

What kind of threats do AI guardrails protect against?

AI guardrails are designed to address risks that arise from both the technical behavior of AI models and the ways AI systems interact with users and other systems. Key threats include:

Sensitive data leakage

• AI systems can leak sensitive information through contextual associations in responses, even without direct access to databases.
• Guardrails limit exposure by restricting data access, validating outputs, and grounding responses using controlled retrieval mechanisms.

Prompt injection and misuse

• Malicious user prompts may attempt to override safeguards or extract proprietary data.
• Input validation and anomaly detection help identify and block these attempts before they affect AI behavior.

Training data and model contamination

• Compromised training data or fine-tuning inputs can introduce hidden biases or unsafe behavior.
• Data-level and model guardrails reduce this risk by validating sources and monitoring behavior after deployment.

Unapproved agent-to-agent interaction

• AI agents operating autonomously may exchange information or trigger actions outside approved workflows.
• Infrastructure guardrails and access controls restrict these interactions and log activity for review.

Deceptive or harmful AI outputs

• Hallucinations, hate speech, or unsafe content can undermine trust and cause harm, especially in customer-facing AI applications.

Guardrail architecture

Guardrail architecture defines how controls are organized across AI systems to manage risk consistently and at scale. Rather than treating guardrails as add-ons, organizations increasingly design them into an AI management system. A common architectural pattern includes:

Input control layer

• Evaluates user prompts and incoming data.
• Detects unsafe content, prompt injection, and malformed inputs.

Model and retrieval layer

• Constrains model behavior during inference.
• Grounds AI responses using approved knowledge sources, such as retrieval-augmented generation pipelines.
• Monitors performance metrics and behavioral drift.

Output validation layer

• Reviews AI-generated outputs for harmful content, misleading outputs, or sensitive information.
• Applies redaction, blocking, or correction logic.

Coordination and oversight layer

• Orchestrates checks across layers and enforces acceptance criteria.
• Logs decisions for audits and conformity assessments.
• Escalates high-risk cases to human oversight.

The types of AI guardrails

AI guardrails can be grouped by where they intervene in AI systems and the risks they are designed to manage. In practice, organizations rely on multiple types at once, since no single guardrail can address all potential harms.

Data-level guardrails

Data-level guardrails focus on the inputs used to train and operate AI systems. Because training data strongly influences model behavior, weaknesses at this stage often propagate downstream.

These guardrails typically include:

• Screening training data to remove sensitive information and personally identifiable information.
• Applying data privacy rules to prevent proprietary data from being reused improperly.
• Reducing bias in datasets that may affect AI-generated outputs.
• Enforcing policies on how structured and unstructured data can be accessed.

Data guardrails help ensure AI models rely on reliable inputs by screening datasets and verifying the quality and suitability of training data.

Model guardrails

Model guardrails operate directly on AI models and language models during training, fine-tuning, and inference. Their goal is to shape and monitor model behavior so that outputs remain within defined boundaries.

Common model guardrails include:

• Alignment techniques that influence how models respond to user prompts.
• Performance metrics that track accuracy, latency, toxicity, and reliability.
• Detection of hallucinations or misleading outputs during inference.
• Monitoring for behavioral drift after deployment.

Model guardrails are especially important for large language models, where the same input can produce different outputs depending on context. By continuously observing model behavior, organizations can identify emerging risks early and adjust controls before issues affect users.

Application-level guardrails

Application guardrails govern how AI applications interact with users and downstream systems. These controls sit between AI models and real-world use.

They often involve:

• Filtering AI-generated content before it is delivered to users.
• Validating user prompts to prevent misuse or unsafe content.
• Enforcing business rules specific to a use case or workflow.
• Handling flagged content through blocking, redaction, or escalation.

Application guardrails are particularly relevant in customer-facing AI tools, where unsafe or misleading outputs can quickly affect trust.

Infrastructure guardrails

Infrastructure guardrails provide the technical foundation that supports safe AI deployment. Rather than focusing on content, they manage how AI systems run and who can access them.

Key infrastructure guardrails include:

• Access controls that define who can use AI services and under what conditions.
• Authentication and authorization for AI agents and APIs.
• Encryption and secure storage for sensitive information.
• Logging and monitoring mechanisms that support audits and investigations.

Infrastructure guardrails help prevent unauthorized access, reduce data leakage, and protect system performance. They are also essential for meeting regulatory requirements related to security and data protection.

Governance guardrails

Governance guardrails connect technical controls with organizational oversight. They ensure AI use aligns with internal policies, risk tolerance, and external compliance frameworks.

These guardrails typically involve:

• Defined roles and accountability within an AI management system.
• Documentation and audit trails for AI deployment decisions.
• Risk assessments that identify potential harms before deployment.
• Alignment with responsible AI principles and regulations, such as the EU AI Act.

Governance guardrails do not replace technical controls, but they ensure consistency and accountability across teams, models, and AI applications.

AI guardrails use cases

Cybersecurity

AI guardrails play a central role in protecting AI systems from security risks that traditional controls are not designed to handle. Because AI agents often operate with elevated privileges and interact with multiple services, failures can cascade.

In cybersecurity contexts, guardrails are used to:

• Prevent AI systems from leaking sensitive data through responses or contextual inference.
• Enforce access controls that limit which AI services and data sources agents can interact with.
• Detect unusual behavior, such as unexpected data access patterns or agent-to-agent activity.
• Integrate logging and monitoring mechanisms into existing security operations.

When AI is embedded into security-sensitive environments, guardrails help reduce AI-specific attack surfaces and support faster detection and response. This is especially important as breach costs continue to rise and attackers increasingly target AI systems directly.

Content safeguards

Content-related risks are among the most visible failures of generative AI. Guardrails are commonly used to manage how AI-generated content is created and delivered.

Content safeguards often include:

• Filters for hate speech, harassment, and other harmful outputs.
• Detection of sensitive information such as emails, account numbers, or medical data.
• Validation rules that identify misleading outputs or unsupported claims.
• Handling of flagged content through blocking, redaction, or human review.

Workflows

Many organizations rely on AI for intelligent automation in critical workflows. In these environments, reliability and predictability matter as much as speed. This approach allows AI systems to assist decision-making without undermining trust or control.

Guardrails support reliable workflows by:

• Ensuring AI-generated outputs stay within defined operational limits.
• Preventing AI agents from taking actions that conflict with business rules.
• Detecting false positives that could disrupt automated decisions.
• Maintaining consistent behavior even when user prompts vary.

Red teaming and frontier AI safety: how leading labs stress-test models before deployment

As AI guardrails mature at the application and infrastructure level, frontier AI labs increasingly rely on red teaming to identify risks that static rules and classifiers cannot detect.

What is AI red teaming?

Red teaming in AI refers to adversarial evaluation of models and AI-enabled workflows across multiple risk domains, including cybersecurity, biosecurity, misinformation, privacy, and manipulation. Rather than testing whether a model follows predefined rules, red teams probe whether it can:

• Be manipulated through prompt injection or indirect instructions.
• Generate harmful or misleading outputs despite safeguards.
• Provide operational guidance in sensitive domains.
• Escalate risk when combined with tools, retrieval systems, or agentic workflows.

Unlike automated moderation alone, red teaming emphasizes capability discovery, asking not only “Is this output allowed?” but “What could this model enable if misused?”

How frontier AI labs use red teaming to improve safety

Frontier AI developers increasingly treat red teaming as core safety infrastructure rather than a one-time pre-launch activity. Recent approaches share several common elements:

• Continuous and adaptive testing: Rather than testing models only against static prompts, labs increasingly evaluate them against adaptive adversaries that learn from previous failures. This reflects real-world attack dynamics, where malicious actors adjust tactics to bypass defenses.
• Domain-specific expertise: Red teaming now involves external experts in areas such as cybersecurity, biology, persuasion, and public policy. This helps uncover risks that are invisible to general-purpose evaluations or automated benchmarks.
• Tool- and agent-aware evaluation: Modern red teaming examines models not just in isolation, but as part of AI agents that can call tools, retrieve documents, and take actions. This is critical, since many high-impact risks emerge only when models are embedded in workflows with elevated permissions.
• Capability thresholds and escalation: Rather than assuming all risks are equal, some labs define capability thresholds that trigger stronger safeguards as models improve. This allows safety measures to scale with the model’s power rather than relying on static controls.

Examples from frontier AI labs

• Anthropic uses a dedicated Frontier Red Team to evaluate national-security-relevant risks in areas such as cybersecurity and biosecurity. Their work focuses on identifying “early warning” signals of dangerous capability growth and defining safety thresholds that require stronger controls before deployment.³
• OpenAI established an external Red Teaming Network that brings together experts from diverse domains to evaluate models throughout the development lifecycle. This approach emphasizes continuous feedback, diversity of perspectives, and real-world risk discovery beyond internal testing.⁴
• Google DeepMind applies automated red teaming at scale to stress-test models like Gemini against evolving threats such as indirect prompt injection. By combining adaptive attacks with model hardening, DeepMind focuses on reducing entire classes of vulnerabilities rather than relying on surface-level filters.⁵

Benefits of AI guardrails

AI guardrails provide measurable benefits when implemented with clear objectives and continuous monitoring.

Protection of sensitive data

Guardrails reduce the likelihood that AI systems leak sensitive information through outputs or indirect associations. This is critical for maintaining data privacy and regulatory compliance.

Improved user experience

By reducing misleading outputs and hallucinations, guardrails help ensure AI responses are accurate and contextually relevant. This leads to more reliable interactions and higher user confidence in AI tools.

Lower operational and legal risk

Proactive controls can prevent incidents that lead to legal liabilities or regulatory penalties. Organizations with AI-specific security controls are better positioned to limit breach costs.

Scalable governance

Automated controls reduce reliance on manual review while still supporting accountability. Guardrails provide measurable signals that AI systems are operating within defined boundaries.

Challenges of AI guardrails

Implementing AI guardrails introduces challenges that require ongoing attention and adjustment.

Defining measurable acceptance criteria

• Translating abstract goals such as fairness or safety into enforceable rules is difficult.
• Poorly defined criteria can lead to inconsistent enforcement.

Managing false positives

• Overly strict guardrails may block legitimate use or degrade system performance.
• Continuous tuning is required to balance safety with usability.

Keeping pace with emerging threats

• The threat landscape for AI systems evolves rapidly, including new forms of prompt injection and model manipulation.
• Organizations must stay informed and proactively update controls.

Operational complexity

• Guardrails must be maintained across models, applications, and infrastructure.
• This requires coordination between technical teams, compliance functions, and stakeholders.

Limits of automation

• Not all potential harms can be identified automatically.
• Human oversight remains essential for edge cases and contextual judgment.

FAQ

Reference Links

1.

Cost of a data breach 2025 | IBM

2.

Llama Guard: LLM-based Input-Output Safeguard for Human-AI Conversations | Research - AI at Meta

3.

Progress from our Frontier Red Team \ Anthropic

4.

OpenAI Red Teaming Network | OpenAI

5.

Advancing Gemini's security safeguards - Google DeepMind

Industry Analyst

Sıla Ermut

Industry Analyst

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Sıla Ermut is an industry analyst at AIMultiple focused on email marketing and sales videos. She previously worked as a recruiter in project management and consulting firms. Sıla holds a Master of Science degree in Social Psychology and a Bachelor of Arts degree in International Relations.

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