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Eroding trust and undermining shared kno…
Cyber-offense

Driving opinion manipulation

The Ethics of Advanced AI Assistants

Gabriel et al. (2024)

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.

"AI assistants may facilitate large-scale disinformation campaigns by offering novel, covert ways for propagandists to manipulate public opinion. This could undermine the democratic process by distorting public opinion and, in the worst case, increasing skepticism and political violence."(p. 164)

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 risks

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

Capability failures

7.3 Lack of capability or robustness
AI systemUnintentionalOther

Capability failures > Lack of capability for task

7.3 Lack of capability or robustness
AI systemUnintentionalPre-deployment

Capability failures > Difficult to develop metrics for evaluating benefits or harms caused by AI assistants

6.5 Governance failure
AI systemUnintentionalPre-deployment

Capability failures > Safe exploration problem with widely deployed AI assistants

7.3 Lack of capability or robustness
AI systemUnintentionalPost-deployment

Goal-related failures

7.1 AI pursuing its own goals in conflict with human goals or values
AI systemOtherPre-deployment

Goal-related failures > Misaligned consequentialist reasoning

7.3 Lack of capability or robustness
AI systemOtherPre-deployment
View all 69 risks from this paper →