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Open Access
All too human? Identifying and mitigating ethical risks of Social AI
Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom
Abstract

This paper presents an overview of the risks and benefits of Social AI, understood as conversational AI systems that cater to human social needs like romance, companionship, or entertainment. Section 1 of the paper provides a brief history of conversational AI systems and introduces conceptual distinctions to help distinguish varieties of Social AI and pathways to their deployment. Section 2 of the paper adds further context via a brief discussion of anthropomorphism and its relevance to assessment of human-chatbot relationships. Section 3 of the paper provides a survey of potential and in some cases demonstrated harms associated with user interactions with Social AI systems. Finally, Section 4 discusses how the benefits and harms of Social AI can best be addressed, with a primary focus on how frameworks from AI ethics can inform their development.

Keywords

Social AI; ethical challenges of AI; generative AI; AI and intellectual property law; AI regulation; AI and society; digital companionship; intellectual property rights; machine learning applications

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