Unclear definition of responsibilities and accountability for AI judgments and their consequences

Classification

Domain

6. Socioeconomic & Environmental

Subdomain

6.5 Governance failure

Causal entity

AI

Intent

Unintentional

Timing

Post-deployment

Subdomain definition: 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.

Real-world incidents in this subdomain

• 4 Mar 2026Nippon Life Alleged ChatGPT Practiced Law Without a License in Illinois Disability Case
• 10 Feb 2026OpenAI Allegedly Did Not Alert RCMP After ChatGPT Flagged Violent Chats Before British Columbia School Shooting
• 1 Jun 2022Remotely Operated Taser-Armed Drones Proposed by Taser Manufacturer as Defense for School Shootings in the US

How other frameworks describe this risk

• Mobility

  The Rise of Artificial Intelligence - Future Outlooks and Emerging Risks (Allianz2018)

• Liability issues in case of accidents

  The Rise of Artificial Intelligence - Future Outlooks and Emerging Risks (Allianz2018)

• Faster scientific progress makes it harder for governance to keep pace with development

  A Survey of the Potential Long-term Impacts of AI: How AI Could Lead to Long-term Changes in Science, Cooperation, Power, Epistemics and Values (Clarke2023)

• Type 1: Diffusion of responsibility

  TASRA: a Taxonomy and Analysis of Societal-Scale Risks from AI (Critch2023)

• Products Liability Law

  Generating Harms - Generative AI's impact and paths forwards (EPIC2023)

• Institutional responsibilities

  The Ethics of Advanced AI Assistants (Gabriel2024)

• Difficult to develop metrics for evaluating benefits or harms caused by AI assistants

  The Ethics of Advanced AI Assistants (Gabriel2024)

• Benchmarking (Cross-lingual data contamination)

  Risk Sources and Risk Management Measures in Support of Standards for General-Purpose AI Systems (Gipiškis2024)

Other entries from Wirtz2022

• Technological, Data and Analytical AI Risks Risk Category
• Loss of control of autonomous systems and unforeseen behaviour due to lack of transparency and self-programming/ reprogramming Risk Sub-Category · 7.1
• Programming error Risk Sub-Category · 7.0
• Lack of data, poor data quality, and biases in training data Risk Sub-Category · 1.1
• Vulnerability of AI systems to attacks and misuse Risk Sub-Category · 2.2
• Lack of AI experts with comprehensive AI knowledge Risk Sub-Category · 6.5
• Immaturity of AI technology can cause incorrect decisions Risk Sub-Category · 7.3
• High investment costs of AI hinder integration Risk Sub-Category · 6.1
• Informational and Communicational AI Risks Risk Category · 4.1
• Manipulation and control of information provision (e.g., personalised adds, filtered news) Risk Sub-Category · 4.1
• Disinformation and computational propaganda Risk Sub-Category · 4.1
• Censorship of opinions expressed in the Internet restricts freedom of expression Risk Sub-Category · 5.2