The AI Model Risk Catalog: What Developers and Researchers Miss About Real-World AI Harms

Authors

  • Pooja S. B. Rao University of Lausanne International Institute of Information Technology Bangalore
  • Sanja Šćepanović Nokia Bell Labs University of Oxford
  • Dinesh Babu Jayagopi International Institute of Information Technology Bangalore
  • Mauro Cherubini University of Lausanne
  • Daniele Quercia Nokia Bell Labs Politecnico di Torino

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1609/aies.v8i3.36702

Abstract

We analyzed nearly 460,000 AI model cards from Hugging Face to examine how developers report risks. From these, we extracted around 3,000 unique risk mentions and built the AI Model Risk Catalog. We compared these with risks identified by researchers in the MIT Risk Repository and with real-world incidents from the AI Incident Database. Developers focused on technical issues like bias and safety, while researchers emphasized broader social impacts. Both groups paid little attention to fraud and manipulation, which are common harms arising from how people interact with AI. Our findings show the need for clearer, structured risk reporting that helps developers think about human-interaction and systemic risks early in the design process.
AIES-2025 Proceedings Cover

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Published

2025-10-15

How to Cite

Rao, P. S. B., Šćepanović, S., Jayagopi, D. B., Cherubini, M., & Quercia, D. (2025). The AI Model Risk Catalog: What Developers and Researchers Miss About Real-World AI Harms. Proceedings of the AAAI ACM Conference on AI, Ethics, and Society, 8(3), 2150–2163. https://doi.org/10.1609/aies.v8i3.36702

Issue

Vol. 8 No. 3 (2025): Proceedings of the Eighth AAAI/ACM Conference on AI, Ethics, and Society (AIES-25) - Main Track III & Student Abstracts

Section

Main Track III