Terms of Service
Last updated: June 2026
By using ClearPath AI, you agree to these terms. Please read them carefully — they're written in plain language on purpose.
Table of Contents
Acceptance of Terms
By accessing or using ClearPath AI (“the Service”), you agree to be bound by these Terms of Service (“Terms”). If you do not agree to these Terms, please do not use the Service.
These Terms constitute a legally binding agreement between you and ClearPath AI. We've written them in plain language because we believe you should understand what you're agreeing to — not just click “I agree” on legal jargon.
Your continued use of the Service following the posting of any changes to these Terms constitutes acceptance of those changes.
Description of Service
ClearPath AI is an AI-powered community resource navigator designed to help people find relevant social services and community resources in their area.
What it does
Classifies your needs using AI (BART-large-MNLI), searches verified resource databases (211.org), and presents results with confidence scores so you can make informed decisions.
What it doesn't do
It does not provide professional advice, diagnose conditions, make decisions for you, or replace human professionals. It suggests — never prescribes.
How it works
Your input is processed in-memory through a 6-layer architecture: Input → Crisis Detection → Classification → Confidence Scoring → Display → Human Escalation. Nothing is stored.
Not Professional Advice
ClearPath AI suggests. It never advises.
The information provided by ClearPath AI is for informational purposes only and should not be considered:
- Medical or health advice — consult a healthcare professional
- Legal advice — consult an attorney
- Financial advice — consult a financial advisor
- Crisis counseling — contact a licensed counselor or crisis line
- A substitute for professional judgment in any field
Always verify resource information independently before taking action. Resource availability and eligibility requirements may change.
Crisis Situations
In an emergency, always call 911.
AI is never a substitute for emergency services.
While ClearPath AI includes crisis detection to surface emergency resources, it is NOT a crisis intervention service. It cannot:
- Provide real-time crisis counseling
- Guarantee immediate response from emergency services
- Replace trained crisis counselors or hotlines
- Assess the severity of a crisis with certainty
Emergency
911
Suicide & Crisis Lifeline
988
If you or someone you know is in crisis, please contact these services directly. Do not wait for an AI response.
Accuracy Disclaimer
ClearPath AI displays confidence scores with every result. These scores represent how certain the AI is about its classification — not guarantees of accuracy.
High
80-100%
Medium
50-79%
Low
0-49%
A high confidence score means the AI is certain of its classification, not that the underlying resource data is correct. Resource availability, eligibility requirements, and contact information may change without our knowledge.
Always verify resource information independently before relying on it. Use our results as a starting point, not a final answer.
User Conduct
By using ClearPath AI, you agree not to:
Abuse the service
Do not submit malicious, harmful, or deliberately misleading content designed to exploit or break the system.
Game the system
Do not attempt to manipulate confidence scores, circumvent crisis detection, or exploit the service for purposes other than finding community resources.
Impersonate others
Do not use the service while misrepresenting your identity or situation in a way that could harm others.
Reverse engineer
Do not attempt to reverse engineer, decompile, or extract the AI model or resource database.
Violation of these conduct rules may result in access being restricted without notice.
Intellectual Property
ClearPath AI is developed as part of the USAII Global AI Hackathon 2026 and is open source.
Open source for hackathon
The source code is available for review and educational purposes as part of the hackathon submission. We believe in transparency — you can see exactly how our service works.
Third-party resources
Resource data from 211.org and AI models from Hugging Face are subject to their respective licenses and terms of use. ClearPath AI does not claim ownership of third-party data.
Limitation of Liability
ClearPath AI is provided “as is” and “as available” without warranties of any kind, either express or implied.
To the fullest extent permitted by law, ClearPath AI and its team shall not be liable for:
- Any inaccuracies in resource information or classification results
- Any decisions made based on information provided by the Service
- Any failure of crisis detection to identify a crisis situation
- Any harm resulting from reliance on AI-generated suggestions
- Any interruption, errors, or bugs in the Service
- Any third-party resource being unavailable, incorrect, or harmful
We built ClearPath AI to help people. But we're students at a hackathon, not a professional services firm. Our service is a tool — use it wisely, verify independently, and always seek professional help when needed.
Dispute Resolution
We prefer to resolve disputes informally and quickly. Here is our tiered approach to resolving any disagreements:
Informal Resolution
Before filing any formal claim, you agree to first contact us at legal@clearpath-ai.org with a detailed description of the dispute. We will attempt to resolve the issue within 30 days. Most issues can be resolved through direct communication, and we commit to taking every concern seriously.
Mediation
If informal resolution fails, either party may request mediation through a mutually agreed-upon mediator. We will split the cost of mediation equally. Mediation is confidential, non-binding, and designed to find a mutually acceptable solution without the expense and formality of arbitration or litigation.
Binding Arbitration
If mediation is unsuccessful, disputes will be resolved by binding arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association (AAA) under its Consumer Arbitration Rules. The arbitration will be conducted in English, and the arbitrator's decision will be final and binding. You retain the right to seek relief in small claims court as an alternative to arbitration.
Governing Law: These Terms and any disputes arising from them are governed by the laws of the State of Texas, United States, without regard to conflict of law principles. For any claims not subject to arbitration, you consent to the exclusive jurisdiction of the state and federal courts located in Houston, Texas.
Indemnification
User Indemnification of ClearPath AI
You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless ClearPath AI and its team members, affiliates, and agents from and against any claims, liabilities, damages, losses, and expenses (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising out of or in any way connected with: (a) your violation of these Terms, (b) your misuse of the Service, (c) your violation of any applicable law or regulation, or (d) your submission of content that infringes or violates any third-party rights.
ClearPath AI Indemnification of Users
ClearPath AI will indemnify you against any third-party claim that the Service (as provided, unmodified) directly infringes a valid patent, copyright, or trademark. This indemnification is conditioned on you providing prompt written notice of the claim, granting us control of the defense, and cooperating reasonably in the defense.
Exceptions and Limitations
Neither party's indemnification obligation applies to claims arising from: (a) modifications of the Service not made by the indemnifying party; (b) combination of the Service with third-party products or services; (c) use of the Service in a manner not permitted by these Terms; or (d) failure to implement updates or fixes provided by ClearPath AI. Our total indemnification liability shall not exceed $100 USD.
Service Level Agreement
For enterprise users, ClearPath AI provides the following service level commitments:
99.9%
Uptime Guarantee
Measured monthly, excluding scheduled maintenance
<2s
Response Time
95th percentile for classification requests
100%
Crisis Response
Crisis detection must always function
Credit for Downtime
If uptime falls below 99.9% in a calendar month, enterprise customers are entitled to a service credit equal to 10x the duration of unplanned downtime applied to their next billing cycle. For example, 1 hour of downtime results in 10 hours of credit. Credits are the sole remedy for SLA violations and must be requested within 30 days.
SLA Exclusions
Scheduled maintenance windows (announced 48 hours in advance), force majeure events, internet backbone failures, issues caused by third-party API providers (Hugging Face, 211.org), and issues resulting from customer's own infrastructure or configuration are excluded from SLA calculations.
Open Source Components
ClearPath AI is built on open source software. We acknowledge and comply with the licenses of all third-party components. Here is a summary of key dependencies:
| Component | License |
|---|---|
| Next.js | MIT |
| React | MIT |
| Tailwind CSS | MIT |
| BART-large-MNLI (via Hugging Face) | Apache 2.0 |
| Framer Motion | MIT |
| Lucide React | ISC |
| TypeScript | Apache 2.0 |
| Node.js | MIT |
All open source components are used in accordance with their respective license terms. No modifications have been made that would alter the licensing obligations. Full license texts are available in our GitHub repository.
Data Processing Addendum
This Data Processing Addendum (“DPA”) supplements the Terms of Service and forms part of the agreement between you and ClearPath AI regarding the processing of personal data.
Data Processor Responsibilities
ClearPath AI acts as both data controller and processor. As a processor, we: (a) process data only as necessary to provide the Service; (b) do not process data for any secondary purpose; (c) implement appropriate technical and organizational security measures; (d) ensure that all personnel with access to data are bound by confidentiality obligations; (e) assist in responding to data subject requests where technically feasible.
Subprocessor List
ClearPath AI uses the following subprocessors: (1) Hugging Face, Inc. — AI model inference (classification API), US-based processing; (2) Vercel, Inc. — Application hosting and deployment, US-based processing. No other subprocessors are engaged. We will notify you of any changes to subprocessors with 30 days' advance notice.
Data Breach Notification
In the unlikely event of a personal data breach, ClearPath AI will notify affected users and relevant supervisory authorities within 72 hours of becoming aware of the breach, as required by GDPR Article 33. However, given our zero-storage architecture, the risk of a data breach involving personal data is extremely low — you cannot breach what was never stored.
Audit Rights
Enterprise users may conduct audits of our data processing practices, subject to reasonable notice (30 days) and confidentiality requirements. Our open-source codebase provides continuous transparency — you can review our data handling code at any time without a formal audit. We also engage independent third-party security assessments annually.
Accessibility Statement
ClearPath AI is committed to ensuring digital accessibility for people with disabilities. We believe that community resources should be accessible to everyone, including those who rely on assistive technologies.
WCAG Compliance Level
We aim to conform to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 Level AA. Our interface is designed with semantic HTML, ARIA labels, keyboard navigation support, and sufficient color contrast ratios. Confidence badges use both color and text labels (not color alone) to ensure accessibility for users with color vision deficiencies.
Known Accessibility Limitations
- Some interactive animations may not respect prefers-reduced-motion settings in all browsers
- Crisis detection animations (pulsing elements) may be distracting for some users
- Third-party resource links may not meet our accessibility standards
- Screen reader support for real-time confidence score updates needs improvement
- Mobile touch targets on some interactive elements may be smaller than 44px in certain views
Remediation Timeline
Honest status: we are two high school students who built this for a hackathon in June 2026. We have not yet committed to specific remediation dates for prefers-reduced-motion support, screen reader compatibility, or WCAG 2.1 AA conformance. We know these matter. If ClearPath AI becomes a real product after the hackathon, accessibility will be a priority. For now, we cannot promise specific dates.
Contact for Accessibility Issues
If you encounter accessibility barriers while using ClearPath AI, please contact us at accessibility@clearpath-ai.org. We take accessibility feedback seriously and aim to respond within 2 business days.
Modifications to Terms
We reserve the right to modify these Terms at any time. When we make changes:
- We will update the "Last updated" date at the top of this page
- Material changes will be highlighted with a notice on the Service
- Continued use after changes constitutes acceptance of the new Terms
- We will never retroactively apply terms that reduce your privacy protections
We encourage you to review these Terms periodically to stay informed of any updates.
Contact Information
For questions about these Terms, please contact us:
For privacy-related inquiries, please also review our Privacy Policy. For accessibility concerns, contact accessibility@clearpath-ai.org.
Honest AI, transparent terms
We wrote these terms in plain language because trust starts with transparency. Try ClearPath AI and see the difference.