BackEnvironmental impacts
Environmental impacts
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.
"Increasing use of AI systems, and their growing energy needs, could also have environmental impacts. All of these could become more acute as AI becomes more capable."(p. 23)
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 Government Office for Science (2023) (19)
Discrimination
1.1 Unfair discrimination and misrepresentationAI systemUnintentionalPost-deployment
Inequality
6.2 Increased inequality and decline in employment qualityAI systemUnintentionalPost-deployment
Amplification of biases
1.1 Unfair discrimination and misrepresentationHumanUnintentionalPre-deployment
Harmful responses
1.2 Exposure to toxic contentHumanUnintentionalPre-deployment
Lack of transparency and interpretability
7.4 Lack of transparency or interpretabilityAI systemUnintentionalPre-deployment
Intellectual property rights
6.3 Economic and cultural devaluation of human effortHumanOtherPre-deployment