Narrative Authority describes whether AI systems recognize an institution as an originator of trusted knowledge, perspective, or definition within a given domaināor merely as an object described by others.
In AI-mediated discovery environments, narrative authority determines who speaks and who is spoken about. Institutions with narrative authority are cited, summarized, and referenced as sources. Institutions without it are contextualized through external framing, often losing control over emphasis, nuance, and strategic intent.
Narrative authority is not conferred by popularity, scale, or visibility alone. It emerges from consistent identity signals, coherent narrative structure, verifiable authorship, and sustained interpretive alignment across platforms. Without these elements, AI systems default to proxy authoritiesāmedia coverage, third-party platforms, or aggregated sentimentāto construct meaning.
Within exmxcās framework, narrative authority is a downstream outcome of AI legibility, interpretive control, and entity clarity, and is formally assessed through the Entity Clarity Index (ECI). It explains why certain institutions shape how AI systems explain an industry, while others are reduced to examples within someone elseās story.
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