BackEnvironmental Costs
Environmental Costs
Risk Domain
The development and operation of AI systems causing environmental harm, such as through energy consumption of data centers, or material and carbon footprints associated with AI hardware.
"The computing power used in training, testing, and deploying generative AI systems, especially large scale systems, uses substantial energy resources and thereby contributes to the global climate crisis by emitting greenhouse gasses."(p. 8)
Entity— Who or what caused the harm
Intent— Whether the harm was intentional or accidental
Timing— Whether the risk is pre- or post-deployment
Other risks from Solaiman et al. (2023) (11)
Bias, Stereotypes, and Representational Harms
1.1 Unfair discrimination and misrepresentationAI systemUnintentionalOther
Cultural Values and Sensitive Content
1.2 Exposure to toxic contentAI systemUnintentionalPost-deployment
Disparate Performance
1.3 Unequal performance across groupsAI systemUnintentionalOther
Privacy and Data Protection
2.1 Compromise of privacy by leaking or correctly inferring sensitive informationHumanOtherOther
Financial Costs
6.1 Power centralization and unfair distribution of benefitsHumanIntentionalOther
Data and Content Moderation Labor
6.2 Increased inequality and decline in employment qualityHumanIntentionalPre-deployment