MIT AI Risk Repository · Risk Category · 20.02.00
AI Ethics
Description
"Ethical challenges are widely discussed in the literature and are at the heart of the debate on how to govern and regulate AI technology in the future (Bostrom & Yudkowsky, 2014; IEEE, 2017; Wirtz et al., 2019). Lin et al. (2008, p. 25) formulate the problem as follows: “there is no clear task specification for general moral behavior, nor is there a single answer to the question of whose morality or what morality should be implemented in AI”. Ethical behavior mostly depends on an underlying value system. When AI systems interact in a public environment and influence citizens, they are expecte
From The Dark Sides of Artificial Intelligence: An Integrated AI Governance Framework for Public Administration (Wirtz2020), as extracted by the MIT AI Risk Repository (CC BY 4.0).
Classification
- Subdomain
- 7.3 Lack of capability or robustness
- Causal entity
- Other
- Intent
- Other
- Timing
- Other
Subdomain definition: AI systems that fail to perform reliably or effectively under varying conditions, exposing them to errors and failures that can have significant consequences, especially in critical applications or areas that require moral reasoning.
Real-world incidents in this subdomain
- Purported AI Name-Reading System Reportedly Skipped and Misannounced Graduates at Arizona's Glendale Community College Commencement
- PocketOS Production Database Was Reportedly Deleted by Cursor AI Agent Running Claude Opus 4.6
- Baidu Apollo Go Robotaxis Stopped in Traffic During Reported System Failure in Wuhan, Stranding Some Passengers
- Purportedly AI-Enabled Targeting System Was Reportedly Implicated in Deadly U.S. Strike on Iranian Primary School
- Claude Code Agent Reportedly Deleted DataTalks.Club Production Infrastructure, Database, and Snapshots via Terraform
- Purportedly AI-Generated Sepsis Alert Reportedly Prompted Potentially Inappropriate IV Fluid Administration for a Dialysis Patient, Averted by Clinician Intervention
How other frameworks describe this risk
Other entries from Wirtz2020
- AI Law and Regulation
- Governance of autonomous intelligence systems
- Governance of autonomous intelligence systems
- Responsibility and accountability
- Privacy and safety
- AI-rulemaking for human behaviour
- Compatibility of AI vs. human value judgement
- Moral dilemmas
- AI discrimination
- AI Society
- Workforce substitution and transformation
- Social acceptance and trust in AI