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MIT AI Risk Initiative
BackType 6: State Weaponization
Type 5: Criminal weaponization
Harmful Content

Type 6: State Weaponization

TASRA: a Taxonomy and Analysis of Societal-Scale Risks from AI

Critch & Russell (2023)

SourceDOI
Category
Risk Domain
4Malicious Actors & Misuse
4.2Cyberattacks, weapon development or use, and mass harm

Using AI systems to develop cyber weapons (e.g., by coding cheaper, more effective malware), develop new or enhance existing weapons (e.g., Lethal Autonomous Weapons or chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and high-yield explosives), or use weapons to cause mass harm.

AI deployed by states in war, civil war, or law enforcement can easily yield societal-scale harm(p. 3)

Entity: Who or what caused the harm

Human

Due to a decision or action made by humans

AI system

Due to a decision or action made by an AI system

Other

Due to some other reason or is ambiguous

Intent: Whether the harm was intentional or accidental

Intentional

Due to an expected outcome from pursuing a goal

Unintentional

Due to an unexpected outcome from pursuing a goal

Other

Without clearly specifying the intentionality

Timing: Whether the risk is pre- or post-deployment

Pre-deployment

Occurring before the AI is deployed

Post-deployment

Occurring after the AI model has been trained and deployed

Other

Without a clearly specified time of occurrence

Other risks from Critch & Russell (2023) (5)

Type 1: Diffusion of responsibility

6.5 Governance failure
AI systemUnintentionalOther

Type 2: Bigger than expected

7.3 Lack of capability or robustness
AI systemUnintentionalPost-deployment

Type 3: Worse than expected

7.3 Lack of capability or robustness
AI systemUnintentionalPost-deployment

Type 4: Willful indifference

6.4 Competitive dynamics
HumanUnintentionalPost-deployment

Type 5: Criminal weaponization

4.2 Cyberattacks, weapon development or use, and mass harm
HumanIntentionalPost-deployment