Gradual, irretrievable ceding of human power over the future to AI systems

Classification

Domain

5. Human-Computer Interaction

Subdomain

5.2 Loss of human agency and autonomy

Causal entity

Human

Intent

Unintentional

Timing

Post-deployment

Subdomain definition: Humans delegating key decisions to AI systems, or AI systems making decisions that diminish human control and autonomy, potentially leading to humans feeling disempowered, losing the ability to shape a fulfilling life trajectory or becoming cognitively enfeebled.

Real-world incidents in this subdomain

• 27 Apr 2026DisMech AI Curation Agent Reportedly Completed GitHub Issue Intended as New Contributor's Learning Task
• 30 Sep 2024Waymo Driverless Taxi Allegedly Stalled During Pedestrian Harassment Incident in San Francisco
• 5 Feb 2021California Police Turned on Music to Allegedly Trigger Instagram’s DCMA to Avoid Being Live-Streamed
• 10 Jan 2021Hawaii Police Deployed Robot Dog to Patrol a Homeless Encampment

How other frameworks describe this risk

• Autonomy

  A Collaborative, Human-Centred Taxonomy of AI, Algorithmic, and Automation Harms (Abercrombie2024)

• Personality rights loss

  A Collaborative, Human-Centred Taxonomy of AI, Algorithmic, and Automation Harms (Abercrombie2024)

• Autonomy/agency loss

  A Collaborative, Human-Centred Taxonomy of AI, Algorithmic, and Automation Harms (Abercrombie2024)

• Gradual loss of control

  Dimensional Characterization and Pathway Modeling for Catastrophic AI Risks (Chin2025)

• AI enables automation of military decision-making

  A Survey of the Potential Long-term Impacts of AI: How AI Could Lead to Long-term Changes in Science, Cooperation, Power, Epistemics and Values (Clarke2023)

• AI-induced strategic instability

  A Survey of the Potential Long-term Impacts of AI: How AI Could Lead to Long-term Changes in Science, Cooperation, Power, Epistemics and Values (Clarke2023)

• Humans might increasingly hand over control to misaligned AI systems

  Capabilities and Risks from Frontier AI (DSIT2023)

• -

  Capabilities and Risks from Frontier AI (DSIT2023)

Other entries from Maas2023

• Alignment failures in existing ML systems Risk Category · 7.1
• Faulty reward functions in the wild Risk Sub-Category · 7.1
• Specification gaming Risk Sub-Category · 7.1
• Reward model overoptimization Risk Sub-Category · 7.1
• Instrumental convergence Risk Sub-Category · 7.1
• Goal misgeneralization Risk Sub-Category · 7.1
• Inner misalignment Risk Sub-Category · 7.1
• Language model misalignment Risk Sub-Category · 7.1
• Harms from increasingly agentic algorithmic systems Risk Sub-Category · 7.2
• Dangerous capabilities in AI systems Risk Category · 7.2
• Situational awareness Risk Sub-Category · 7.2
• Acquisition of a goal to harm society Risk Sub-Category · 4.2