The Malicious Use of Artificial Intelligence: Forecasting, Prevention, and Mitigation

The Malicious Use of Artificial Intelligence: Forecasting, Prevention, and Mitigation

Future of Humanity Institute, University of Oxford, Centre for the Study of Existential Risk, & Electronic Frontier Foundation (Eds.) (2018) The Malicious Use of Artificial Intelligence: Forecasting, Prevention, and Mitigation (p. 99). Future of Humanity Institute. https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.22520

Artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities are growing at an unprecedented rate. These technologies have many widely beneficial applications, ranging from machine translation to medical image analysis. Countless more such applications are being developed and can be expected over the long term. Less attention has historically been paid to the ways in which artificial intelligence can be used maliciously. This report surveys the landscape of potential security threats from malicious uses of artificial intelligence technologies, and proposes ways to better forecast, prevent, and mitigate these threats. We analyze, but do not conclusively resolve, the question of what the long-term equilibrium between attackers and defenders will be. We focus instead on what sorts of attacks we are likely to see soon if adequate defenses are not developed.