Affected Groups
Who bears the impact of AI-enabled threats? These guides identify the individuals, organizations, and systems most directly affected — organized by the structural category of harm recipient.
Disclaimer: This content is for awareness and educational purposes only. It does not constitute professional, legal, or security advice. Consult qualified professionals for specific guidance.
Individuals
Groups where harm is experienced by natural persons.
Children
How AI-enabled threats affect minors under 18, a group requiring distinct protection due to developmental vulnerability, legal protections, and inability to provide informed consent.
General Public
How AI-enabled threats affect the broad population of individuals as end users, consumers, or members of the public — when harm is not confined to a specific professional or demographic group.
Vulnerable Communities
How AI-enabled threats disproportionately affect structurally disadvantaged populations — including seniors, people with disabilities, low-income communities, and marginalized groups facing compounded risk from pre-existing inequities.
Workers
How AI-enabled threats affect employees, contractors, gig workers, and professionals — through job displacement, algorithmic management, surveillance, or degraded working conditions.
Organizations
Groups where harm is experienced by institutional entities.
Business Organizations
How AI-enabled threats affect private sector entities — through fraud, competitive manipulation, operational disruption, or reputational damage. Includes corporations, SMEs, and startups.
Critical Infrastructure Operators
How AI-enabled threats affect entities operating essential systems — energy, transport, telecommunications, water, and health infrastructure — where disruption has cascading public consequences.
Developers & AI Builders
How AI-enabled threats affect technical actors — AI labs, open-source projects, and platform providers — whose systems fail, are exploited, or cause downstream harm.
Government Institutions
How AI-enabled threats affect public administrative bodies — through compromised decision-making, data breaches, or loss of public trust. Includes agencies, ministries, and municipal governments.
Systems
Groups where harm manifests at the level of societal structures.
Democratic Institutions
How AI-enabled threats undermine electoral systems, legislative bodies, judicial processes, and structures of democratic representation.
National Security Systems
How AI-enabled threats compromise defense, intelligence, military command-and-control, and border security systems.
Society at Large
How AI-enabled threats produce diffuse systemic harm to social cohesion, public trust, epistemic integrity, or institutional stability — extending beyond identifiable individuals or organizations.
About These Guides
How the affected groups hub is structured
Each awareness guide is tailored to a specific affected group and focuses on three key areas:
- Most Relevant Threats — The AI-enabled threat patterns most likely to affect that group, based on documented incidents
- What to Watch For — Practical early warning indicators
- Relevant Regulations — Applicable legal protections and regulatory frameworks
Taxonomy Structure
Affected groups are organized into three categories: Individuals (natural persons), Organizations (institutional entities), and Systems (societal structures). This structure ensures that harm at every scale — from a single person to society-wide impact — is captured without conflating different types of harm recipients.
For the full classification methodology, see the Taxonomy page or the Methodology.
Last reviewed: 2026-03-03 · 11 group guides · View all threat domains