MIT AI Risk Repository · Risk Sub-Category · 24.05.02
Manipulation and coercion
Category: Anthropomorphism
Description
"A user who trusts and emotionally depends on an anthropomorphic AI assistant may grant it excessive influence over their beliefs and actions (see Chapter 9). For example, users may feel compelled to endorse the expressed views of a beloved AI companion or might defer decisions to their highly trusted AI assistant entirely (see Chapters 12 and 16). Some hold that transferring this much deliberative power to AI compromises a user’s ability to give, revoke or amend consent. Indeed, even if the AI, or the developers behind it, had no intention to manipulate the user into a certain course of actio
From The Ethics of Advanced AI Assistants (Gabriel2024), as extracted by the MIT AI Risk Repository (CC BY 4.0).
Classification
- Subdomain
- 5.1 Overreliance and unsafe use
- Causal entity
- Other
- Intent
- Intentional
- Timing
- Post-deployment
Subdomain definition: Users anthropomorphizing, trusting, or relying on AI systems, leading to emotional or material dependence and inappropriate relationships with or expectations of AI systems. Trust can be exploited by malicious actors (e.g., to harvest personal information or enable manipulation), or result in harm from inappropriate use of AI in critical situations (e.g., medical emergency). Overreliance on AI systems can compromise autonomy and weaken social ties.
Real-world incidents in this subdomain
- Lawsuit Alleged ChatGPT (GPT-4o) Encouraged Colorado Man's Suicide After Prolonged 'AI Companion' Chats
- Large-Scale Mental Health Crises Allegedly Associated with ChatGPT Interactions
- Google Gemini Reportedly Reinforced Delusions, Allegedly Contributing to Florida User's Near-Harm Episode and Suicide
- Family Reportedly Discovers ChatGPT Logs Detailing Suicidal Ideation Prior to Daughter's Death
- Purported AI Monitoring Software Reportedly Flags Unsent Joke Threat, Leading to Arizona Student Suspension
- ChatGPT Allegedly Reinforced Delusions Before Greenwich, Connecticut Murder-Suicide
How other frameworks describe this risk
Other entries from Gabriel2024
- Capability failures
- Lack of capability for task
- Difficult to develop metrics for evaluating benefits or harms caused by AI assistants
- Safe exploration problem with widely deployed AI assistants
- Goal-related failures
- Misaligned consequentialist reasoning
- Specification gaming
- Goal misgeneralisation
- Deceptive alignment
- Malicious Uses
- Offensive Cyber Operations (General)
- AI-Powered Spear-Phishing at Scale