Socioeconomic & Environmental
AI-driven concentration of power and resources within certain entities or groups, especially those with access to or ownership of powerful AI systems, leading to inequitable distribution of benefits and increased societal inequality.
Subdomains (6)
Risks classified at the domain level (21)
Entries from the AI Risk Repository (MIT) assigned to this domain with no specific subdomain. Original content in English.
21 entries
07.04.00Structural
"Structural risks are concerned with how AI technologies "shape and are shaped by the environments in which they are developed and deployed""
11.05.00Societal System Harms
"Social system or societal harms reflect the adverse macro-level effects of new and reconfigurable algorithmic systems, such as systematizing bias and inequality [84] and accelerating the scale of harm [137]"
12.03.00Environmental & Societal Impact
"Addresses AI's broader societal effects, including labor displacement, mental health impacts, and issues from manipulative technologies like deepfakes. Additionally, it considers AI's environmental footprint, balancing resource strain and training-related carbon emissions against AI's potential to help address environmental problems."
15.02.00Second-Order Risks
"Second-order risks result from the consequences of first-order risks and relate to the risks resulting from an ML system interacting with the real world, such as risks to human rights, the organization, and the natural environment."
15.02.06Organizational
The risk of financial and/or reputational damage to the organization building or using the ML system.
16.06.00Risk area 6: Environmental and Socioeconomic harms
"LMs create some risks that recur with different types of AI and other advanced technologies making these risks ever more pressing. Environmental concerns arise from the large amount of energy required to train and operate large-scale models. Risks of LMs furthering social inequities emerge from the uneven distribution of risk and benefits of automation, loss of high-quality and safe employment, and environmental harm. Many of these risks are more indirect than the harms analysed in previous sections and will depend on various commercial, economic and social factors, making the specific impact of LMs difficult to disentangle and forecast. As a result, the level of evidence on these risks is mixed."
17.06.00Automation, Access and Environmental Harms
"Harms that arise from environmental or downstream economic impacts of the language model"
18.06.00Socioeconomic and environmental harms
"AI systems amplifying existing inequalities or creating negative impacts on employment, innovation, and the environment"
47.04.00Environmental, economical, and societal challenges
"Beyond the risks associated with AI technology and its applications, and the legal challenges arising from its development, it is crucial to consider other long- term issues posed by the deployment of increasingly advanced generative AI models. These risks to society, sometimes referred to as “systemic risks,”537 encompass several key areas: the potential for excessive market concentration, the impacts on employment, environmental consequences, and broader risks to humanity."
58.06.04Loss of freedom of speech/expression
"Loss of freedom of speech/expression - Restrictions to or loss of people’s right to articulate their opin- ions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction."
58.06.05Loss of freedom of assembly/association
"Loss of freedom of assembly/association - Restrictions to or loss of people’s right to come together and collectively express, promote, pursue, and defend their collective or shared ideas, and/or to join an association."
58.06.06Loss of social rights and access to public services
"Loss of social rights and access to public services - Restrictions to or loss of rights to work, social secu- rity, and adequate standard of living, housing, health and education."
58.06.07Loss of right to information
"Loss of right to information - Restrictions to or loss of people’s right to seek, receive and impart information held by public bodies."
58.06.08Loss of right to free elections
"Loss of right to free elections - Restrictions to or loss of people’s right to participate in free elections at reasonable intervals by secret ballot."
58.06.09Loss of right to liberty and security
"Loss of right to liberty and security - Restrictions to or loss of liberty as a result of illegal or arbitrary arrest or false imprisonment."
58.06.10Loss of right to due process
"Loss of right to due process - Restrictions to or loss of right to be treated fairly, efficiently and effectively by the administration of justice."
58.07.00Societal and Cultural
"Societal and Cultural - Harms affecting the functioning of societies, communities and economies caused directly or indirectly by the use or misuse technology systems."
61.01.02Democracy
"The erosion of democratic processes and public trust in social/political institutions."
62.09.02Economic harm
66.02.01Political instability
"Political unrest caused directly or indirectly by the use or misuse of a technology system"