MIT AI Risk Repository · Risk Sub-Category · 70.04.02
Lack of accountability and liability
Category: Social Risks
Description
"Determining responsibility when EAI causes harm requires new accountability and liability frameworks that address the complexities of highly autonomous physical systems. Human users may disagree with decisions taken by expert EAI systems, raising significant questions of delegation and responsibility [108]. Lack of EAI accountability could lead to confusion for users and breakdowns in traditional justice systems [109]."
From Embodied AI: Emerging Risks and Opportunities for Policy Action (Perlo2025), as extracted by the MIT AI Risk Repository (CC BY 4.0).
Classification
- Subdomain
- 6.5 Governance failure
- Causal entity
- Other
- Intent
- Unintentional
- Timing
- Other
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
- Nippon Life Alleged ChatGPT Practiced Law Without a License in Illinois Disability Case
- OpenAI Allegedly Did Not Alert RCMP After ChatGPT Flagged Violent Chats Before British Columbia School Shooting
- Remotely Operated Taser-Armed Drones Proposed by Taser Manufacturer as Defense for School Shootings in the US
How other frameworks describe this risk
- Mobility
- Liability issues in case of accidents
- Faster scientific progress makes it harder for governance to keep pace with development
- Type 1: Diffusion of responsibility
- Products Liability Law
- Institutional responsibilities
- Difficult to develop metrics for evaluating benefits or harms caused by AI assistants
- Benchmarking (Cross-lingual data contamination)