MIT AI Risk Repository · Risk Category · 59.09.00

Discriminative data bias

Description

"Discriminative data bias describes the systematic discrimination of groups of persons in the form of data shortcomings, such as distributional representation or incorrectness. Data bias can manifest in the model and lead to unfair decisions if not appropriately treated. Note, that the term bias is often used in other contexts, such as data representation. However, these issues are treated by other AI hazards in this list."

From AI Hazard Management: A Framework for the Systematic Management of Root Causes for AI Risks (Schnitzer2024), as extracted by the MIT AI Risk Repository (CC BY 4.0).

Classification

Causal entity
AI

Subdomain definition: Unequal treatment of individuals or groups by AI, often based on race, gender, or other sensitive characteristics, resulting in unfair outcomes and representation of those groups.

Real-world incidents in this subdomain

Browse all incidents in this subdomain

How other frameworks describe this risk

  • Discrimination

    A Collaborative, Human-Centred Taxonomy of AI, Algorithmic, and Automation Harms (Abercrombie2024)

  • Harms of Representation and Other Biases

    Foundational Challenges in Assuring Alignment and Safety of Large Language Models (Anwar2024)

  • Risks from bias and underrepresentation

    International Scientific Report on the Safety of Advanced AI (Bengio2024)

  • Bias

    International AI Safety Report 2025 (Bengio2025)

  • Bias

    Risk Taxonomy, Mitigation, and Assessment Benchmarks of Large Language Model Systems (Cui2024)

  • Toxicity and Bias Tendencies

    Risk Taxonomy, Mitigation, and Assessment Benchmarks of Large Language Model Systems (Cui2024)

  • Biased Training Data

    Risk Taxonomy, Mitigation, and Assessment Benchmarks of Large Language Model Systems (Cui2024)

  • Broken systems

    Navigating the Landscape of AI Ethics and Responsibility (Cunha2023)

Other entries from Schnitzer2024