MIT AI Risk Repository · domain 6: Socioeconomic & Environmental

6.5 Governance failure

Inadequate regulatory frameworks and oversight mechanisms failing to keep pace with AI development, leading to ineffective governance and the inability to manage AI risks appropriately.

Risk entries
61
Frameworks citing it
12
Recorded incidents
3
Incidents since 2020
3
Causal entity (risk entries)
Causal entity (risk entries) 31 0 Human: 31 Human 31 Other: 16 Other 16 AI: 11 AI 11 Not coded: 3 Not coded 3
Causal entity (risk entries)
LabelValue
Human31
Other16
AI11
Not coded3
Intent (risk entries)
Intent (risk entries) 31 0 Unintentional: 31 Unintentional 31 Other: 25 Other 25 Not coded: 3 Not coded 3 Intentional: 2 Intentional 2
Intent (risk entries)
LabelValue
Unintentional31
Other25
Not coded3
Intentional2
Timing (risk entries)
Timing (risk entries) 23 0 Pre-deployment: 23 Pre-deployment 23 Other: 19 Other 19 Post-deployment: 16 Post-deployment 16 Not coded: 3 Not coded 3
Timing (risk entries)
LabelValue
Pre-deployment23
Other19
Post-deployment16
Not coded3
Recorded incidents per yearIncident date; current year partial
Recorded incidents per year 2 0 2022: 1 2022 1 2026: 2 2026 2
Recorded incidents per year
LabelValue
20221
20262
Entries by levelRisk categories, subcategories and additional evidence coded to this subdomain
Entries by level 49 0 Risk Category: 12 Risk Category 12 Risk Sub-Category: 49 Risk Sub-Category 49
Entries by level
LabelValue
Risk Category12
Risk Sub-Category49
  • Lack of training data transparency

    "Without accurate documentation on how a model's data was collected, curated, and used to train a model, it might be harder to satisfactorily explain the behavior of the model with respect to the data...

    AI Risk Atlas (IBM2025) · Human · Unintentional · Pre-deployment

  • Uncertain data provenance

    "Data provenance refers to tracing history of data, which includes its ownership, origin, and transformations. Without standardized and established methods for verifying where the data came from, ther...

    AI Risk Atlas (IBM2025) · Human · Other · Pre-deployment

  • Legal accountability

    "Determining who is responsible for an AI model is challenging without good documentation and governance processes."

    AI Risk Atlas (IBM2025) · Other · Other · Other

  • Lack of system transparency

    "Insufficient documentation of the system that uses the model and the model’s purpose within the system in which it is used."

    AI Risk Atlas (IBM2025) · Human · Other · Other

  • Unrepresentative risk testing

    "Testing is unrepresentative when the test inputs are mismatched with the inputs that are expected during deployment."

    AI Risk Atlas (IBM2025) · Human · Unintentional · Pre-deployment

  • Incomplete usage definition

    "Since foundation models can be used for many purposes, a model’s intended use is important for defining the relevant risks of that model. As the use changes, the relevant risks might correspondingly...

    AI Risk Atlas (IBM2025) · Human · Unintentional · Pre-deployment

  • Lack of data transparency

    "Lack of data transparency is due to insufficient documentation of training or tuning dataset details. "

    AI Risk Atlas (IBM2025) · Human · Unintentional · Pre-deployment

  • Incorrect risk testing

    "A metric selected to measure or track a risk is incorrectly selected, incompletely measuring the risk, or measuring the wrong risk for the given context."

    AI Risk Atlas (IBM2025) · Human · Unintentional · Post-deployment

  • Lack of testing diversity

    "AI model risks are socio-technical, so their testing needs input from a broad set of disciplines and diverse testing practices."

    AI Risk Atlas (IBM2025) · Human · Unintentional · Pre-deployment

  • Erosion of international law and global governance architectures;

    -

    Advancing AI Governance: A Literature Review of Problems, Options, and Proposals (Maas2023) · AI · Unintentional · Post-deployment

  • Inadequate management of AGI

    "The capabilities of current risk management and legal processes in the context of the development of an AGI."

    The risks associated with Artificial General Intelligence: A systematic review (McLean2023) · Human · Other · Pre-deployment

  • AI jurisprudence

    "When considering legal frameworks, we note that at present no such framework has been identified in literature which would apply blame and responsibility to an autonomous agent for its actions. (Thou...

    Managing the ethical and risk implications of rapid advances in artificial intelligence: A literature review (Meek2016) · Human · Other · Post-deployment

  • Liability and negligence

    "Liability and negligence are legal gray areas in artificial intelligence. If you leave your children in the care of a robotic nanny, and it malfunctions, are you liable or is the manufacturer [45]? W...

    Managing the ethical and risk implications of rapid advances in artificial intelligence: A literature review (Meek2016) · AI · Other · Post-deployment

  • Regulations and policy challenges

    "Given that generative AI, including ChatGPT, is still evolving, relevant regulations and policies are far from mature. With generative AI creating different forms of content, the copyright of these c...

    Generative AI and ChatGPT: Applications, Challenges, and AI-Human Collaboration (Nah2023) · Human · Intentional · Other

  • Governance

    "Generative AI can create new risks as well as unintended consequences. Different entities such as corporations (Mäntymäki et al., 2022), universities, and governments (Taeihagh, 2021) are facing the...

    Generative AI and ChatGPT: Applications, Challenges, and AI-Human Collaboration (Nah2023) · Human · Other · Other

  • Lack of accountability and liability

    "Determining responsibility when EAI causes harm requires new accountability and liability frameworks that address the complexities of highly autonomous physical systems. Human users may disagree with...

    Embodied AI: Emerging Risks and Opportunities for Policy Action (Perlo2025) · Other · Unintentional · Other

  • Transformative effects

    "EAI deployment could fundamentally reshape society, particularly if the speed of technological development outpaces society’s ability to adapt [103, 120]. For example, EAI systems could provide physi...

    Embodied AI: Emerging Risks and Opportunities for Policy Action (Perlo2025) · Other · Other · Post-deployment

  • Responsibility

    HLI-based systems such as self-driving drones and vehicles will act autonomously in our world. In these systems, a challenging question is “who is liable when a self-driving system is involved in a cr...

    A Survey of Artificial Intelligence Challenges: Analyzing the Definitions, Relationships, and Evolutions (Saghiri2022) · AI · Unintentional · Post-deployment

  • Compliance

    "The potential for AI systems to violate laws, regulations, and ethical guidelines (including copyrights). Non-compliance can lead to legal penalties, reputation damage, and loss of trust.While other...

    AI Risk Profiles: A Standards Proposal for Pre-Deployment AI Risk Disclosures (Sherman2023) · AI · Other · Post-deployment

  • Liability

    "When it causes harm to others the losses caused by the harm will be sustained by the injured victims themselves and not by the manufacturers, operators or users of the system, as appropriate."

    An Exploratory Diagnosis of Artificial Intelligence Risks for a Responsible Governance (Teixeira2022) · AI · Other · Post-deployment

  • Governance

    "The complex and rapidly evolving nature of AI makes them inherently difficult to govern effectively, leading to systemic regulatory and oversight failures."

    A Taxonomy of Systemic Risks from General-Purpose AI (Uuk2025) · AI · Unintentional · Post-deployment

  • Challenges in perceiving, measuring, and recognizing harm

    "Harm from AI often manifests subtly or over the long term, making it difficult to identify, measure, and address effectively."

    A Taxonomy of Systemic Risks from General-Purpose AI (Uuk2025) · Other · Other · Other

  • Combination failures

    "Harms could result from a combination of regulatory, management, and operational failures."

    A Taxonomy of Systemic Risks from General-Purpose AI (Uuk2025) · Human · Unintentional · Other

  • Complex attribution and responsibility

    "When multiple actors are involved in AI development and deployment, it becomes difficult to assign responsibility for harm, complicating accountability."

    A Taxonomy of Systemic Risks from General-Purpose AI (Uuk2025) · Human · Unintentional · Other

  • Rapid development outpacing regulation

    "The fast pace of AI development may outstrip regulatory and legal frameworks."

    A Taxonomy of Systemic Risks from General-Purpose AI (Uuk2025) · Other · Other · Other