Organization Matters: A Qualitative Study of Organizational Dynamics in Red Teaming Practices for Generative AI

TL;DR

This study explores how organizational factors impact the effectiveness of red teaming in GenAI development, revealing challenges like resistance and inertia that hinder proactive risk mitigation.

Contribution

It provides qualitative insights into organizational barriers affecting red teaming practices in GenAI, emphasizing the need for integrated, user-centered approaches throughout development.

Findings

Organizational resistance and inertia hinder red teaming effectiveness.

Vulnerable red teamers are marginalized within organizations.

Risks to vulnerable users often remain unnoticed until post-deployment.

Abstract

The rapid integration of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) across diverse fields underscores the critical need for red teaming efforts to proactively identify and mitigate associated risks. While previous research primarily addresses technical aspects, this paper highlights organizational factors that hinder the effectiveness of red teaming in real-world settings. Through qualitative analysis of 17 semi-structured interviews with red teamers from various organizations, we uncover challenges such as the marginalization of vulnerable red teamers, the invisibility of nuanced AI risks to vulnerable users until post-deployment, and a lack of user-centered red teaming approaches. These issues often arise from underlying organizational dynamics, including organizational resistance, organizational inertia, and organizational mediocracy. To mitigate these dynamics, we discuss the implications of user research for red teaming and the importance of embedding red teaming throughout the entire development cycle of GenAI systems.