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Cognitive sensor systems (CSS) determine the future of inspection and monitoring systems for the nondestructive evaluation (NDE) of material states and their properties and key enabler of NDE 4.0 activities. CSS generate a complete NDE 4.0 data and information ecosystem, i. e. they are part of the materials data space and they are integrated in the concepts of Industry 4.0 (I4.0). Thus, they are elements of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and of the required interfaces. Applied Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a key element for the development of cognitive NDE 4.0 sensor systems. On the one side, AI can be embedded in the sensor’s microelectronics (e. g. neuromorphic hardware architectures) and on the other side, applied AI is essential for software modules in order to produce end-user-information by fusing multi-mode sensor data and measurements. Besides of applied AI, trusted AI also plays an important role in CSS, as it is able to provide reliable and trustworthy data evaluation decisions for the end user. For this recently rapidly growing demand of performant and reliable CSS, specific requirements have to be fulfilled for validation and qualification of their correct function. The concept for quality assurance of NDE 4.0 sensor and inspection systems has to cover all of the functional sub-systems, i. e. data acquisition, data processing, data evaluation and data transfer, etc. Approaches to these objectives are presented in this paper after giving an overview on the most important elements of CSS for NDE 4.0 applications. Reliable and safe microelectronics is a further issue in the qualification process for CSS.