Over the past five years, corporate social responsibility became mainstream. Companies made bold public commitments on climate, diversity, labor practices, and community investment. ESG funds surged. Sustainability reports multiplied. Purpose-driven language became standard in every annual report and earnings call.

Activists targeted companies for purpose-washing. ESG critics called out vague pledges with no accountability. Regulators in California and Brussels began requiring companies to substantiate claims with verifiable data, even as Washington pulled back. Plaintiffs’ attorneys learned that a public commitment is a discoverable document. And the same AI tools companies use to write their reports are now being used to read them — surfacing inconsistencies between the sustainability page, the earnings call, the careers site, and the filings in a matter of hours.

Meanwhile, a new category of claim appeared. Nearly every large company now makes public statements about responsible, ethical, or human-centered AI. Regulators have brought more than a dozen enforcement actions against companies whose AI claims outran their reality, and the first criminal charges have been filed. Responsible AI is the new net zero: universally promised, rarely substantiated, and increasingly checked.