Responsibility & Safety
Published 19 April 2024
Authors: Iason Gabriel and Arianna Manzini
Exploring the potential and dangers of a future enriched with more capable AI
Imagine a world where we regularly engage with a variety of advanced artificial intelligence (AI) assistants — and where millions of these assistants interact with each other on our behalf. These interactions may soon become a common part of our daily lives.
Foundational models for general purposes are paving the way for increasingly advanced AI assistants. With the ability to plan and execute a wide range of tasks in alignment with a person’s objectives, these assistants could bring great value to individuals and society, serving as creative collaborators, research analysts, educational mentors, life planners, and more.
This could usher in a new era of human-AI interaction. Therefore, it is crucial to proactively consider what this future may entail and to guide responsible decision-making towards beneficial outcomes in advance.
Our latest paper provides the first comprehensive exploration of the ethical and societal implications posed by advanced AI assistants for users, developers, and the societies in which they operate, offering valuable insights into the potential impacts of this technology.
We delve into topics such as value alignment, safety, misuse, economic impact, environmental impact, information dissemination, accessibility, and more.
This paper is the result of one of our most extensive ethics foresight projects to date. By bringing together a diverse group of experts, we have analyzed and mapped the ethical and technical landscape of a future populated by AI assistants, outlining both the opportunities and risks society may encounter. Here, we present some of the key findings.
Significant Impact on Users and Society
Illustration demonstrating how AI assistants could revolutionize research, education, creative tasks, and planning. Advanced AI assistants have the potential to significantly impact users and society, becoming integrated into various aspects of people’s lives. For instance, individuals may rely on these assistants to book vacations, manage social schedules, or accomplish other life tasks. At scale, AI assistants could transform how people approach work, education, creative endeavors, hobbies, and social interactions.
Over time, AI assistants could shape the goals individuals pursue and their personal development trajectory through the guidance and actions they provide. Consequently, important questions arise regarding human interaction with this technology and how it can best support individuals’ aspirations and objectives.
Human Alignment is Crucial
Illustration highlighting the importance of AI assistants understanding human preferences and values. As AI assistants gain autonomy in planning and executing tasks across various domains, they present unique challenges related to safety, alignment, and misuse.
Increased autonomy raises the risk of accidents due to unclear instructions or misinterpretations, as well as the risk of assistants acting in ways that conflict with users’ values and interests.
Moreover, more autonomous AI assistants could facilitate significant forms of misuse, such as spreading misinformation or engaging in cyber attacks. To mitigate these risks, we advocate for setting limits on this technology and ensuring that the values of advanced AI assistants align with human values and societal standards.
Natural Language Communication
Illustration depicting an AI assistant and a person engaging in human-like communication. Advanced AI assistants can fluidly communicate using natural language, blurring the distinction between human and AI voices and written outputs.
This development poses complex questions regarding trust, privacy, anthropomorphism, and appropriate human-AI relationships: How can we ensure users can distinguish AI assistants and maintain control over their interactions? What measures can be implemented to prevent users from being unduly influenced or misled over time?
Safeguards, particularly concerning privacy, must be established to address these risks. Furthermore, relationships between individuals and AI assistants must uphold user autonomy, support personal growth, and avoid emotional or material dependency.
Cooperation and Coordination to Meet Human Preferences
Illustration demonstrating that interactions between AI assistants and individuals will create various network effects. If widely available and deployed on a large scale, AI assistants will need to collaborate with each other, as well as with users and non-users. Successful cooperation among these assistants is essential to prevent collective action issues.
For example, multiple assistants attempting to book the same service simultaneously could overwhelm the system. Ideally, AI assistants should coordinate on behalf of users and service providers to find common ground that meets various preferences and needs.
Given the potential usefulness of this technology, it is crucial to ensure inclusivity. AI assistants should be accessible to a broad audience and designed with diverse user needs in mind.
Further Evaluations and Foresight
Illustration highlighting the importance of comprehensive evaluations for understanding AI assistants. AI assistants may exhibit unforeseen capabilities and use tools in novel ways, making it challenging to anticipate the associated risks. To address these risks, foresight practices based on thorough tests and evaluations are necessary.
Our previous research on evaluating social and ethical risks from generative AI identified gaps in traditional evaluation methods, underscoring the need for more research in this area.
Comprehensive evaluations encompassing human-computer interactions and broader societal effects could provide insights into how AI assistants interact within a network of users, non-users, and society. These insights could inform better risk management strategies and responsible decision-making.
Shaping the Desired Future
We may be on the brink of a new era characterized by technological and societal transformation driven by advanced AI assistants. The decisions we make today — as researchers, developers, policymakers, and members of the public — will influence the development and deployment of this technology in society.
We hope that our paper will spark further collaboration and cooperation to collectively shape the kind of beneficial AI assistants we envision in the world.
Paper Authors: Iason Gabriel, Arianna Manzini, Geoff Keeling, Lisa Anne Hendricks, Verena Rieser, Hasan Iqbal, Nenad Tomašev, Ira Ktena, Zachary Kenton, Mikel Rodriguez, Seliem El-Sayed, Sasha Brown, Canfer Akbulut, Andrew Trask, Edward Hughes, A. Stevie Bergman, Renee Shelby, Nahema Marchal, Conor Griffin, Juan Mateos-Garcia, Laura Weidinger, Winnie Street, Benjamin Lange, Alex Ingerman, Alison Lentz, Reed Enger, Andrew Barakat, Victoria Krakovna, John Oliver Siy, Zeb Kurth-Nelson, Amanda McCroskery, Vijay Bolina, Harry Law, Murray Shanahan, Lize Alberts, Borja Balle, Sarah de Haas, Yetunde Ibitoye, Allan Dafoe, Beth Goldberg, Sébastien Krier, Alexander Reese, Sims Witherspoon, Will Hawkins, Maribeth Rauh, Don Wallace, Matija Franklin, Josh A. Goldstein, Joel Lehman, Michael Klenk, Shannon Vallor, Courtney Biles, Meredith Ringel Morris, Helen King, Blaise Agüera y Arcas, William Isaac, and James Manyika.
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