> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://aiadoption.org/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# Security and safety was the largest responsible AI research topic in 2025, with 641 papers, up 23%
- URL: https://aiadoption.org/data/responsible-ai-papers-by-subtopic/
- Published: 2026-10-19T17:07:31.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-21T06:04:49.000Z
- Description: Security and safety papers rose 23% to 641 in 2025, the largest of four responsible AI subtopics. Privacy and data governance grew fastest, up 33% to 248.
- Author: Manu
- Tags: Data, AI Ethics, #chart, #ai-index-2026, #hub-ethics

641

▲ 23% vs 2024

security and safety papers at six AI conferences in 2025

20192025

## What the chart shows

Security and safety was the largest responsible AI subtopic at six major AI conferences in 2025, with 641 accepted papers, up 23% from 521 in 2024\. Fairness and bias followed with 462 (up 13%), then transparency and explainability with 405 (up 14%).

Privacy and data governance was the smallest subtopic, at 248 papers, but grew fastest, up 33% from 186\. All four subtopics are larger than in 2019; security and safety has added the most papers since then, up from 162.

## Key numbers

| Measure                               | Value |
| ------------------------------------- | ----- |
| Security and safety, 2025             | 641   |
| Security and safety, 2024             | 521   |
| Fairness and bias, 2025               | 462   |
| Transparency and explainability, 2025 | 405   |
| Privacy and data governance, 2025     | 248   |
| Privacy and data governance, 2024     | 186   |

## How to read it

- A paper can belong to more than one subtopic, so the subtopics add up to more than the number of papers (1,756 against 1,521 in 2025; [related chart](https://aiadoption.org/data/responsible-ai-papers-at-ai-conferences/)).
- In 2022 the data file lists 7 papers under ‘Privacy’ separately; we add them to privacy and data governance, as the report’s totals do.
- The four subtopics are not exhaustive.

**Source:** [AI Index](https://aiadoption.org/sources/#ai-index), 2026, via the AI Index Report 2026 (Stanford HAI), figure 3.4.2: *Number of responsible AI papers accepted at select AI conferences by subtopic, 2019–25*. Chart and text by AI Adoption.  
Numbers checked against the published data on 20 October 2026.  
[Download the data (CSV)](https://charts.aiadoption.org/ai-index/csv/responsible-ai-papers-by-subtopic.csv?ref=aiadoption.org) · [Cite this chart](#source)