Impact Assessment Card: Communicating Risks and Benefits of AI Uses

TL;DR

This paper introduces an Impact Assessment Card designed to communicate AI risks and benefits more clearly, improving accessibility and understanding among diverse stakeholders, and demonstrating its effectiveness through user studies.

Contribution

The paper presents a novel, user-centered design of an Impact Assessment Card for AI risk communication, validated through empirical testing with diverse participants.

Findings

The card enabled faster task completion.

Participants produced higher-quality communication using the card.

The approach improved accessibility for non-experts.

Abstract

Communicating the risks and benefits of AI is important for regulation and public understanding. Yet current methods such as technical reports often exclude people without technical expertise. Drawing on HCI research, we developed an Impact Assessment Card to present this information more clearly. We held three focus groups with a total of 12 participants who helped identify design requirements and create early versions of the card. We then tested a refined version in an online study with 235 participants, including AI developers, compliance experts, and members of the public selected to reflect the U.S. population by age, sex, and race. Participants used either the card or a full impact assessment report to write an email supporting or opposing a proposed AI system. The card led to faster task completion and higher-quality emails across all groups. We discuss how design choices can improve accessibility and support AI governance. Examples of cards are available at: https://social-dynamics.net/ai-risks/impact-card/.