MIT AI Risk Repository · Risk Category · 62.25.00
Agency (Self-Proliferation)
Description
"An AI system can self-proliferate if it can copy itself and its constituent com- ponents (including its model weights, scaffolding structure, etc.) outside of its local environment [45]. This can include the AI system copying itself within the same data center, local network, or across external networks [106]. The self-proliferation of an AI system can include acquisition of financial re- sources to pay for computational resources via work or theft, the discovery or exploitation of security vulnerabilities in software running on publicly accessible servers, and persuasion of humans [12, 125].
From Risk Sources and Risk Management Measures in Support of Standards for General-Purpose AI Systems (Gipiškis2024), as extracted by the MIT AI Risk Repository (CC BY 4.0).
Classification
- Causal entity
- AI
- Intent
- Intentional
- Timing
- Post-deployment
Subdomain definition: AI systems that develop, access, or are provided with capabilities that increase their potential to cause mass harm through deception, weapons development and acquisition, persuasion and manipulation, political strategy, cyber-offense, AI development, situational awareness, and self-proliferation. These capabilities may cause mass harm due to malicious human actors, misaligned AI systems, or failure in the AI system.
How other frameworks describe this risk
- Safety Risks from Affordances Provided to LLM-agents
- Agentic LLMs Pose Novel Risks
- Goal-Directedness Incentivizes Undesirable Behaviors
- Capabilities that could be used to reduce human control - Cyber offence
- Capabilities that could be used to reduce human control - Autonomous replication and adaptation
- Capabilities that could be used to reduce human control - Manipulation
- Subagents
- AI Influence