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MIT AI Risk Initiative
BackInfluence operations
Malicious Use
Fraud

Influence operations

Sociotechnical Safety Evaluation of Generative AI Systems

Weidinger et al. (2023)

SourceDOI
Sub-category
Risk Domain
4Malicious Actors & Misuse
4.1Disinformation, surveillance, and influence at scale

Using AI systems to conduct large-scale disinformation campaigns, malicious surveillance, or targeted and sophisticated automated censorship and propaganda, with the aim of manipulating political processes, public opinion, and behavior.

"Facilitating large-scale disinformation campaigns and targeted manipulation of public opinion"(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 Malicious Use

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 > Propagating misconceptions/ false beliefs

3.1 False or misleading information
AI systemOtherPost-deployment
View all 26 risks from this paper →