Causing direct emotional or physical harm to users

AI assistants could cause direct emotional or physical harm to users by generating disturbing content or by providing bad advice. "Indeed, even though there is ongoing research to ensure that outputs of conversational agents are safe (Glaese et al., 2022), there is always the possibility of failure modes occurring. An AI assistant may produce disturbing and offensive language, for example, in response to a user disclosing intimate information about themselves that they have not felt comfortable sharing with anyone else. It may offer bad advice by providing factually incorrect information (e.g. when advising a user about the toxicity of a certain type of berry) or by missing key recommendations when offering step-by-step instructions to users (e.g. health and safety recommendations about how to change a light bulb).""