Mitigations Must Match Risk Scope

Model-level interventions cannot address ecosystem-level risks.

When organizations apply technical fixes to systemic problems, prompt engineering to address labor market disruption, content filters to address information integrity decay, they’re operating at the wrong level of abstraction.

The pattern works in both directions:

• Under-scoped responses: Applying model tweaks to ecosystem problems creates false confidence while risks continue to accumulate elsewhere.
• Over-scoped responses: Treating model-level issues as requiring cross-sector coordination delays interventions that could be implemented immediately.

Effective risk management requires first identifying where on the model → application → ecosystem spectrum a risk operates, then selecting interventions that operate at the same level.

Related: 05-molecule—risk-dimension-model, 05-molecule—gai-risk-taxonomy, 05-atom—algorithmic-monoculture-definition