MIT AI Risk Repository · Risk Sub-Category · 20.02.01
AI-rulemaking for human behaviour
Category: AI Ethics
Description
"AI rulemaking for humans can be the result of the decision process of an AI system when the information computed is used to restrict or direct human behavior. The decision process of AI is rational and depends on the baseline programming. Without the access to emotions or a consciousness, decisions of an AI algorithm might be good to reach a certain specified goal, but might have unintended consequences for the humans involved (Banerjee et al., 2017)."
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
- AI
- Intent
- Other
- Timing
- Post-deployment
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 Ethics
- Compatibility of AI vs. human value judgement
- Moral dilemmas
- AI discrimination
- AI Society
- Workforce substitution and transformation
- Social acceptance and trust in AI