The Ethical and Societal Impact of AI Assistants by Google DeepMind

​AI research has recently shifted towards an 'agentic turn,' with the development of foundation models that set the stage for increasingly sophisticated AI assistants.

These AI systems may serve as creative partners, research assistants, educational tutors, digital counselors, or life planners.

However, their integration is likely to significantly impact society, altering how people interact with AI.

Their development and deployment therefore requires careful evaluation and foresight. Key questions include:

• ​What would a world populated by advanced AI assistants look like?

• ​How will humans interact with more advanced AI that exhibits human-like traits and offers fluent conversation?

• ​What are the societal implications if millions of AI assistants interact on behalf of their users?

​The BuzzRobot speaker, Iason Gabriel from Google DeepMind, will explore a range of ethical and societal questions that arise in the context of assistants such as value alignment and safety, anthropomorphism and human relationships with AI, and broader issues like collective action, equity, and societal impacts.

​Join the BuzzRobot community on Slack: https://join.slack.com/t/buzzrobot/shared_invite/zt-1zsh7k8pd-iMu_M8bUxIK3pOJgqJgCRQ

Related paper: https://storage.googleapis.com/deepmind-media/DeepMind.com/Blog/ethics-of-advanced-ai-assistants/the-ethics-of-advanced-ai-assistants-2024-i.pdf