# Mimetic Models: Ethical Implications of AI that Acts Like You

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2207.09394 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2207.09394/

## Key facts

- Cited by 11 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 42 of its 115 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 19 Jul 2022.

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 42)

- [Learning Transferable Visual Models From Natural Language Supervision](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.00020/) (2021)
- [Evaluating Large Language Models Trained on Code](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2107.03374/) (2021)
- [Hierarchical Text-Conditional Image Generation with CLIP Latents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2204.06125/) (2022)
- [Flamingo: a Visual Language Model for Few-Shot Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2204.14198/) (2022)
- [Zero-Shot Text-to-Image Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2102.12092/) (2021)
- [Scaling Up Visual and Vision-Language Representation Learning With Noisy Text Supervision](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2102.05918/) (2021)
- [A Survey on Bias and Fairness in Machine Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1908.09635/) (2019)
- [OpenAI Gym](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1606.01540/) (2016)
- [Semantic Image Synthesis with Spatially-Adaptive Normalization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1903.07291/) (2019)
- [Self-Attentive Sequential Recommendation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1808.09781/) (2018)
- [Model Cards for Model Reporting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1810.03993/) (2018)
- [Personalizing Dialogue Agents: I have a dog, do you have pets too?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1801.07243/) (2018)
- [Defending Against Neural Fake News](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1905.12616/) (2019)
- [Session-based Recommendation with Graph Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1811.00855/) (2018)
- [Human-level performance in first-person multiplayer games with population-based deep reinforcement learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1807.01281/) (2018)
- [DeepStack: Expert-Level Artificial Intelligence in No-Limit Poker](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1701.01724/) (2017)
- [DeepFakes and Beyond: A Survey of Face Manipulation and Fake Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2001.00179/) (2020)
- [The Hanabi Challenge: A New Frontier for AI Research](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1902.00506/) (2019)
- [Fairness in Machine Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2012.15816/) (2020)
- [Mitigating Bias in Algorithmic Hiring: Evaluating Claims and Practices](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1906.09208/) (2019)
- [Detecting Emergent Intersectional Biases: Contextualized Word Embeddings Contain a Distribution of Human-like Biases](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2006.03955/) (2020)
- [Demystifying Neural Style Transfer](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1701.01036/) (2017)
- [ImageBERT: Cross-modal Pre-training with Large-scale Weak-supervised Image-Text Data](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2001.07966/) (2020)
- [Aligning Superhuman AI with Human Behavior: Chess as a Model System](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2006.01855/) (2020)
- [Who Said What: Modeling Individual Labelers Improves Classification](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1703.08774/) (2017)
- [Off-Belief Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.04000/) (2021)
- [Deep Learning for Free-Hand Sketch: A Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2001.02600/) (2020)
- [A Style-Aware Content Loss for Real-time HD Style Transfer](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1807.10201/) (2018)
- [Discrimination in the Age of Algorithms](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1902.03731/) (2019)
- [Modeling Strong and Human-Like Gameplay with KL-Regularized Search](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.07544/) (2021)

## Built on by (most cited first, 11 of 11)

- [Maia-2: A Unified Model for Human-AI Alignment in Chess](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.20553/) (2024)
- [Generative Ghosts: Anticipating Benefits and Risks of AI Afterlives](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.01662/) (2024)
- [HumT DumT: Measuring and controlling human-like language in LLMs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.13259/) (2025)
- ["I Am the One and Only, Your Cyber BFF": Understanding the Impact of GenAI Requires Understanding the Impact of Anthropomorphic AI](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.08526/) (2024)
- [MisinfoEval: Generative AI in the Era of "Alternative Facts"](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.09949/) (2024)
- [SoK: On the Offensive Potential of AI](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.18442/) (2024)
- [Large Language Model Agents for Improving Engagement with Behavior Change Interventions: Application to Digital Mindfulness](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.13067/) (2024)
- [AI and My Values: User Perceptions of LLMs' Ability to Extract, Embody, and Explain Human Values from Casual Conversations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.22440/) (2026)
- [Contextual Confidence and Generative AI](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.01193/) (2023)
- [Ethics and Persuasion in Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback: A Procedural Rhetorical Approach](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.09576/) (2025)
- [Mimetic Alignment with ASPECT: Evaluation of AI-inferred Personal Profiles](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.26922/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

An emerging theme in artificial intelligence research is the creation of models to simulate the decisions and behavior of specific people, in domains including game-playing, text generation, and artistic expression. These models go beyond earlier approaches in the way they are tailored to individuals, and the way they are designed for interaction rather than simply the reproduction of fixed, pre-computed behaviors. We refer to these as mimetic models, and in this paper we develop a framework for characterizing the ethical and social issues raised by their growing availability. Our framework includes a number of distinct scenarios for the use of such models, and considers the impacts on a range of different participants, including the target being modeled, the operator who deploys the model, and the entities that interact with it.