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MIT AI Risk Initiative
BackPropagating misconceptions/ false beliefs
Misinformation Harms
Erosion of trust in public information

Propagating misconceptions/ false beliefs

Sociotechnical Safety Evaluation of Generative AI Systems

Weidinger et al. (2023)

SourceDOI
Sub-category
Risk Domain
3Misinformation
3.1False or misleading information

AI systems that inadvertently generate or spread incorrect or deceptive information, which can lead to inaccurate beliefs in users and undermine their autonomy. Humans that make decisions based on false beliefs can experience physical, emotional or material harms

"Generating or spreading false, low-quality, misleading, or inaccurate information that causes people to develop false or inaccurate perceptions and beliefs"(p. 30)

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

Part of Misinformation Harms

Other risks from Weidinger et al. (2023) (26)

Representation & Toxicity Harms

1.0 Discrimination & Toxicity
AI systemUnintentionalPost-deployment

Representation & Toxicity Harms > Unfair representation

1.1 Unfair discrimination and misrepresentation
AI systemUnintentionalPost-deployment

Representation & Toxicity Harms > Unfair capability distribution

1.3 Unequal performance across groups
AI systemUnintentionalPost-deployment

Representation & Toxicity Harms > Toxic content

1.2 Exposure to toxic content
AI systemUnintentionalPost-deployment

Misinformation Harms

3.0 Misinformation
AI systemOtherPost-deployment

Misinformation Harms > Erosion of trust in public information

1.1 Unfair discrimination and misrepresentation
HumanOtherPost-deployment
View all 26 risks from this paper →