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Impact assessment

A structured inquiry into an AI system's context, affected groups, plausible impacts, and proposed mitigations.

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Source-linked claims

source-assertionConfidence: highContestability: medium

Human rights and dignity can function as the normative foundation against which AI governance choices are evaluated.

Inspect evidence · source links · passage review pending

Passage summaries are paraphrases, not quotations. Open the source to read the full passage.

Recommendation on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence (opens in a new tab)

Source-level attribution only. A precise supporting passage has not yet been recorded. Existing locator: UNESCO values and principles; EU AI Act Article 1.

Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 — Artificial Intelligence Act (opens in a new tab)

Source-level attribution only. A precise supporting passage has not yet been recorded. Existing locator: UNESCO values and principles; EU AI Act Article 1.

synthesisConfidence: highContestability: low

AI risk management is an ongoing organizational practice across the system lifecycle, not a one-time approval gate.

Inspect evidence · source links · passage review pending

Passage summaries are paraphrases, not quotations. Open the source to read the full passage.

Artificial Intelligence Risk Management Framework (AI RMF 1.0) (opens in a new tab)

Source-level attribution only. A precise supporting passage has not yet been recorded. Existing locator: NIST AI RMF core; OECD accountability principle.

OECD AI Principles (opens in a new tab)

Source-level attribution only. A precise supporting passage has not yet been recorded. Existing locator: NIST AI RMF core; OECD accountability principle.

source-assertionConfidence: highContestability: low

Canada makes algorithmic impact assessment mandatory for federal automated decisions, scales required mitigations to the assessed impact level, and requires the results to be published.

Inspect evidence · 1 passage

Passage summaries are paraphrases, not quotations. Open the source to read the full passage.

Algorithmic Impact Assessment tool (opens in a new tab)

Overview and publication sections

The Algorithmic Impact Assessment is mandatory under the directive; its impact level sets the required mitigations, and departments must publish the final results in an accessible format.

Scope note: Official guidance for the Treasury Board Directive on Automated Decision-Making (amended June 2025). The directive text on tbs-sct.canada.ca could not be retrieved for this check; section numbers are not cited.

Passage checked 2026-10-09 · canada-aia-publication

source-assertionConfidence: highContestability: low

Public consultation inside an impact assessment becomes a formality unless it comes with explicit requirements.

Inspect evidence · 1 passage

Passage summaries are paraphrases, not quotations. Open the source to read the full passage.

Assembling Accountability: Algorithmic Impact Assessment for the Public Interest (opens in a new tab)

“Public Consultation” section, failure modes (about pp. 21–22 of the PDF)

Public consultation in an impact assessment becomes perfunctory when it is held only out of obligation and without explicit requirements.

Scope note: Public-interest research on how impact assessments succeed or fail.

Passage checked 2026-10-09 · data-society-consultation

Contrasting perspectives

Editorial lenses, not mutually exclusive schools or an exhaustive account of the debate.

Rights instrument

Assessment should begin from duties to people, including impacts that cannot be traded away as ordinary business risk.

Inspect evidence · source links · passage review pending

Passage summaries are paraphrases, not quotations. Open the source to read the full passage.

Recommendation on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence (opens in a new tab)

Source-level attribution only. A precise supporting passage has not yet been recorded.

Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 — Artificial Intelligence Act (opens in a new tab)

Source-level attribution only. A precise supporting passage has not yet been recorded.

Appears in worked analyses

Provenance

  1. Recommendation on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence

    UNESCO · recommendation · published 2021-11-23 · Adopted text, 23 November 2021

    unesco-ai-ethics · Last checked 2026-09-04 · claims and passages

  2. Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 — Artificial Intelligence Act

    European Union · law · published 2024-07-12 · Official Journal text

    Original 2024 enactment, not a consolidated current-law or applicability check. Records discuss its text, not whether a provision applies to a particular situation today.

    eu-ai-act · Last checked 2026-09-04 · claims and passages

  3. Artificial Intelligence Risk Management Framework (AI RMF 1.0)

    National Institute of Standards and Technology · framework · published 2023-01-26 · 1.0

    nist-ai-rmf-1 · Last checked 2026-09-04 · claims and passages

  4. OECD AI Principles

    Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development · recommendation · published 2019-05-22 · 2024 update

    oecd-ai-principles · Last checked 2026-09-04 · claims and passages

  5. Algorithmic Impact Assessment tool

    Government of Canada · guidance · publication date not recorded

    Official guidance for the Treasury Board Directive on Automated Decision-Making (amended June 2025). The directive text on tbs-sct.canada.ca could not be retrieved for this check; section numbers are not cited.

    canada-aia-guidance · Last checked 2026-10-09 · claims and passages

  6. Assembling Accountability: Algorithmic Impact Assessment for the Public Interest

    Data & Society Research Institute · scholarship · published 2021-06-29

    Public-interest research on how impact assessments succeed or fail.

    data-society-assembling-accountability · Last checked 2026-10-09 · claims and passages