Which statement best describes the purpose of an AI ethics risk assessment?

Which statement best describes the purpose of an AI ethics risk assessment?

• A. To align business strategy with ethical principles
• B. To identify potential harms, biases, privacy risks, and governance gaps before deployment and plan mitigations
• C. To monitor system logs after deployment
• D. To optimize model hyperparameters

Answer: (B)

Proactively identifying potential harms, biases, privacy risks, and governance gaps before deployment and planning mitigations is exactly what an AI ethics risk assessment aims to do. By examining data, model behavior, and decision processes early, you can spot where unfair outcomes might arise, where privacy protections may be insufficient, and who is accountable for oversight. This pre-emptive work lets you put safeguards in place, choose appropriate controls, and ensure the project aligns with values and regulatory expectations before anything goes live. If you only focus on post-deployment monitoring or on technical tuning like hyperparameters, you’re addressing issues too late or missing the broader ethical and governance risks that need early attention.

Proactively identifying potential harms, biases, privacy risks, and governance gaps before deployment and planning mitigations is exactly what an AI ethics risk assessment aims to do. By examining data, model behavior, and decision processes early, you can spot where unfair outcomes might arise, where privacy protections may be insufficient, and who is accountable for oversight. This pre-emptive work lets you put safeguards in place, choose appropriate controls, and ensure the project aligns with values and regulatory expectations before anything goes live. If you only focus on post-deployment monitoring or on technical tuning like hyperparameters, you’re addressing issues too late or missing the broader ethical and governance risks that need early attention.