The infographic "Harms of the AI ecosystem" by Per Axbom features small, colorful islands or platforms arranged in four columns.
The illustrated islands/platforms are as follows, listed from top to bottom and left to right:
- Data theft – a burglar saying "Fetch! Good bot!" to a four-legged robot while shining a light on a bookshelf.
- Data source bias – a scale where the Northern Hemisphere sits on one side, outweighing the Southern Hemisphere on the other.
- Implementation bias – five colored figures, three marked with a checkmark and two with an X.
- Mineral mining – an excavator digging a pit, a person digging, and a person sitting slumped on the ground.
- Data center growth – a data center illustrated as a silo with a cloud featuring an eye rising from it; icons for a lightning bolt, water droplet, speaker, and money bag appear below, representing:
- Energy use
- Water extraction
- Noise pollution
- Land use
- Inflation
- Data workers – three people sitting at desks in various stages of exhaustion.
- Surveillance norm – a cloud featuring an eye; the following categories appear below it:
- State
- Employer
- Industry
- Bad actors
- AI boosters – two people at computers at separate desks, saying "It's great for me" and "So good it's scary!"
- Mental health issues – three people sitting in a fetal position with icons above their heads: a fire, a rain cloud, and a whirlwind
- Anthropomorphism – a head resembling a statue, with the speech bubble "Forgive me. Love me."
- Accountability projection – two people at their respective podium with microphones. They say "The machine did it." and "We cannot control the machine."
- Content sludge – a person typing at a computer; an arrow points toward a drainpipe, spilling an oil-like liquid into a waterway; also visible is an icon of a pen and paper with a large ink blot
- Deskilling – two people controlled like marionettes, with strings attached to their limbs. They say "I am lost." and "Just use AI."
- Deepfake abuse – a silhouette of a face with a digital targeting reticle overlaid
- Black box judgment – a black box with a question mark; one arrow leads to a person sitting in the fetal position, while another leads to a person with arms outstretched in a celebratory gesture. Listed below are:
- Employment
- Housing
- Benefits
- Justice
- Undermined security – a Trojan horse, a laptop displaying a bomb, a screen showing a worm burrowing into the display, and a burning wall.
- Tech oligarchy – a person leaning back in a relaxed pose with their hands behind their head, sitting atop stacks of coins forming a sofa.
- Electronic waste – piles of electronics leaking fluid into a waterway marked by a sign featuring a skull. A tree and a house are visible nearby.
