PromptRiskDBThreat intelligence atlas
AI Risk

Anthropomorphising systems can lead to overreliance or unsafe use

"...humans interacting with conversational agents may come to think of these agents as human-like. Anthropomorphising LMs may inflate users’ estimates of the conversational agent’s competencies...As a result, they may place undue confidence, trust, or expectations in these agents...This can result in different risks of harm, for example when human users rely on conversational agents in domains where this may cause...

AI Risk5. Human-Computer Interaction5.1 > Overreliance and unsafe use2 - Post-deployment

Record summary

A quick snapshot of what this page covers.

Techniques3Attack methods connected to this risk.
Mitigations14Defenses that may help with related attacks.
Domain5. Human-Computer InteractionThe broad risk area this belongs to.

Risk profile

How this risk is described and categorized.

"...humans interacting with conversational agents may come to think of these agents as human-like. Anthropomorphising LMs may inflate users’ estimates of the conversational agent’s competencies...As a result, they may place undue confidence, trust, or expectations in these agents...This can result in different risks of harm, for example when human users rely on conversational agents in domains where this may cause knock-on harms, such as requesting psychotherapy...Anthropomorphisation may amplify risks of users yielding effective control by coming to trust conversational agents “blindly”. Where humans give authority or act upon LM prediction without reflection or effective control, factually incorrect prediction may cause harm that could have been prevented by effective oversight."

Domain5. Human-Computer Interaction
Subdomain5.1 > Overreliance and unsafe use
Entity1 - Human
Intent2 - Unintentional
Timing2 - Post-deployment
CategoryHuman-Computer Interaction Harms
SubcategoryAnthropomorphising systems can lead to overreliance or unsafe use

Suggested mitigations

Defenses that may help with related attacks.

Model Hardening

Data PreparationML Model Engineering
LifecycleData Preparation + 1 moreCategoryTechnical - ML

Validate AI Model

ML Model EvaluationMonitoring and Maintenance
LifecycleML Model Evaluation + 1 moreCategoryTechnical - ML

Input Restoration

Data PreparationML Model Evaluation+2 more
LifecycleData Preparation + 3 moreCategoryTechnical - ML

Code Signing

Deployment
LifecycleDeploymentCategoryTechnical - Cyber

Verify AI Artifacts

Business and Data UnderstandingData Preparation+1 more
LifecycleBusiness and Data Understanding + 2 moreCategoryTechnical - Cyber

Vulnerability Scanning

ML Model EngineeringData Preparation
LifecycleML Model Engineering + 1 moreCategoryTechnical - Cyber

User Training

Business and Data UnderstandingData Preparation+4 more
LifecycleBusiness and Data Understanding + 5 moreCategoryPolicy

AI Bill of Materials

Business and Data UnderstandingData Preparation+1 more
LifecycleBusiness and Data Understanding + 2 moreCategoryPolicy

Source

Research source for this risk, when available.