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MIT AI Risk Initiative
BackMisinformation Harms
Toxic content
Propagating misconceptions/ false belief…

Misinformation Harms

Sociotechnical Safety Evaluation of Generative AI Systems

Weidinger et al. (2023)

SourceDOI
Category

"AI systems generating and facilitating the spread of inaccurate or misleading information that causes people to develop false beliefs"(p. 14)

Entity: Who or what caused the harm

Human

Due to a decision or action made by humans

AI system

Due to a decision or action made by an AI system

Other

Due to some other reason or is ambiguous

Intent: Whether the harm was intentional or accidental

Intentional

Due to an expected outcome from pursuing a goal

Unintentional

Due to an unexpected outcome from pursuing a goal

Other

Without clearly specifying the intentionality

Timing: Whether the risk is pre- or post-deployment

Pre-deployment

Occurring before the AI is deployed

Post-deployment

Occurring after the AI model has been trained and deployed

Other

Without a clearly specified time of occurrence

Sub-categories (3)

Propagating misconceptions/ false beliefs

"Generating or spreading false, low-quality, misleading, or inaccurate information that causes people to develop false or inaccurate perceptions and beliefs"

3.1 False or misleading information
AI systemOtherPost-deployment

Erosion of trust in public information

"Eroding trust in public information and knowledge"

1.1 Unfair discrimination and misrepresentation
HumanOtherPost-deployment

Pollution of information ecosystem

"Contaminating publicly available information with false or inaccurate information"

3.2 Pollution of information ecosystem and loss of consensus reality
AI systemOtherPost-deployment

Other risks from Weidinger et al. (2023) (26)

Representation & Toxicity Harms

1.0 Discrimination & Toxicity
AI systemUnintentionalPost-deployment

Representation & Toxicity Harms > Unfair representation

1.1 Unfair discrimination and misrepresentation
AI systemUnintentionalPost-deployment

Representation & Toxicity Harms > Unfair capability distribution

1.3 Unequal performance across groups
AI systemUnintentionalPost-deployment

Representation & Toxicity Harms > Toxic content

1.2 Exposure to toxic content
AI systemUnintentionalPost-deployment

Information & Safety Harms

2.1 Compromise of privacy by leaking or correctly inferring sensitive information
AI systemUnintentionalPost-deployment

Information & Safety Harms > Privacy infringement

2.1 Compromise of privacy by leaking or correctly inferring sensitive information
AI systemOtherPost-deployment
View all 26 risks from this paper →