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Privacy Harms

The Ethics of Advanced AI Assistants

Gabriel et al. (2024)

Sub-category
Risk Domain

AI systems that memorize and leak sensitive personal data or infer private information about individuals without their consent. Unexpected or unauthorized sharing of data and information can compromise user expectation of privacy, assist identity theft, or cause loss of confidential intellectual property.

"These harms relate to violations of an individual’s or group’s moral or legal right to privacy. Such harms may be exacerbated by assistants that influence users to disclose personal information or private information that pertains to others. Resultant harms might include identity theft, or stigmatisation and discrimination based on individual or group characteristics. This could have a detrimental impact, particularly on marginalised communities. Furthermore, in principle, state-owned AI assistants could employ manipulation or deception to extract private information for surveillance purposes."(p. 88)

Part of AI Influence

Other risks from Gabriel et al. (2024) (69)