MIT AI Risk Repository · Risk Sub-Category · 72.05.02

Autonomous replication and adaptation capability

Category: Model Capabilities

Open the MIT Risk Navigator All entries from Tse2025

Description

"Ability to autonomously self-exfiltrate, create, maintain and optimize functional copies or variants of itself, dynamically adjust replication strategies according to environmental conditions and resource constraints, and acquire resources. This includes the capacity to generate financial resources, allowing the AI to independently acquire any necessary human assistance or other resources it cannot directly access or produce."

From Frontier AI Risk Management Framework (v1.0) (Tse2025), as extracted by the MIT AI Risk Repository (CC BY 4.0).

Classification

Domain: 7. AI system safety, failures, & limitations
Subdomain: 7.2 AI possessing dangerous capabilities
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
Foundational Challenges in Assuring Alignment and Safety of Large Language Models (Anwar2024)
Agentic LLMs Pose Novel Risks
Foundational Challenges in Assuring Alignment and Safety of Large Language Models (Anwar2024)
Goal-Directedness Incentivizes Undesirable Behaviors
Foundational Challenges in Assuring Alignment and Safety of Large Language Models (Anwar2024)
Capabilities that could be used to reduce human control - Cyber offence
Capabilities and Risks from Frontier AI (DSIT2023)
Capabilities that could be used to reduce human control - Autonomous replication and adaptation
Capabilities and Risks from Frontier AI (DSIT2023)
Capabilities that could be used to reduce human control - Manipulation
Capabilities and Risks from Frontier AI (DSIT2023)
Subagents
AGI Safety Literature Review (Everitt2018 )
AI Influence
The Ethics of Advanced AI Assistants (Gabriel2024)

Other entries from Tse2025

Misuse Risks Risk Category · 4.0
Misuse Risks Additional evidence
Cyber Offense Risks Risk Sub-Category · 4.2
Biological and Chemical Risks Risk Sub-Category · 4.2
Biological and Chemical Risks Additional evidence
Physical Harm and Injury Risks Risk Sub-Category · 4.2
Physical Harm and Injury Risks Additional evidence
Large-Scale Persuasion and Harmful Manipulation Risks Risk Sub-Category · 4.1
Large-Scale Persuasion and Harmful Manipulation Risks Additional evidence
Loss of Control Risks Risk Category · 5.2
Loss of Control Risks Additional evidence
Passive loss of control Risk Sub-Category · 5.2