AI Safety, Privacy, and Accountability

This unit examines how compromised AI systems cause harm and presents technical and organizational practices to reduce security, safety, and privacy risks. Students will evaluate legal and ethical constraints and create accountability frameworks that align AI objectives with human values, building on foundational concepts and preparing learners to implement governance and operational controls in Unit 4.

Learning Objectives

• Analyze real-world and hypothetical consequences of compromised AI systems to identify threat vectors, affected stakeholders, and potential social or economic impacts
• Apply leading technical and organizational security and safety practices—including access controls, monitoring, robustness testing, and incident response—to produce an AI risk mitigation plan
• Evaluate privacy challenges and regulatory requirements (consent, anonymization limits, data minimization) and recommend data-handling safeguards that balance utility and privacy
• Design an accountability and governance framework that aligns AI objectives with human values, defines roles and responsibilities, and specifies reporting, oversight, and remediation mechanisms