MIT AI Risk Repository · Risk Category · 39.04.00
Robustness and Reliability
Description
The robustness of an AI-based model refers to the stability of the model performance after abnormal changes in the input data... The cause of this change may be a malicious attacker, environmental noise, or a crash of other components of an AI-based system... This problem may be challenging in HLI-based agents because weak robustness may have appeared in unreliable machine learning models, and hence an HLI with this drawback is error-prone in practice.
From A Survey of Artificial Intelligence Challenges: Analyzing the Definitions, Relationships, and Evolutions (Saghiri2022), 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
- Unintentional
- 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