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Persuasive AIs

An Overview of Catastrophic AI Risks

Hendrycks, Mazzeika & Woodside (2023)

Sub-category
Risk Domain

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.

"The deliberate propagation of disinformation is already a serious issue, reducing our shared understanding of reality and polarizing opinions. AIs could be used to severely exacerbate this problem by generating personalized disinformation on a larger scale than before. Additionally, as AIs become better at predicting and nudging our behavior, they will become more capable at manipulating us"(p. 8)

Supporting Evidence (2)

1.
"AIs can exploit users’ trust"(p. 9)
2.
"AIs could centralize control of trusted information"(p. 9)

Part of Malicious Use (Intentional)

Other risks from Hendrycks, Mazzeika & Woodside (2023) (13)