# The Ethics of Advanced AI Assistants

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2404.16244 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.16244/

## Key facts

- Cited by 107 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 24 Apr 2024.

## Built on by (most cited first, 30 of 107)

- [AI Agents That Matter](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.01502/) (2024)
- [AirGapAgent: Protecting Privacy-Conscious Conversational Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.05175/) (2024)
- [Clio: Privacy-Preserving Insights into Real-World AI Use](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.13678/) (2024)
- [Authenticated Delegation and Authorized AI Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.09674/) (2025)
- [LLMs achieve adult human performance on higher-order theory of mind tasks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.18870/) (2024)
- [Contextual Agent Security: A Policy for Every Purpose](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.17070/) (2025)
- [Multi-Agent Systems Execute Arbitrary Malicious Code](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.12188/) (2025)
- [Can AI writing be salvaged? Mitigating Idiosyncrasies and Improving Human-AI Alignment in the Writing Process through Edits](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.14509/) (2024)
- [Why human-AI relationships need socioaffective alignment](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.02528/) (2025)
- [Infrastructure for AI Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.10114/) (2025)
- [Moral Alignment for LLM Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.01639/) (2024)
- [Operationalizing Contextual Integrity in Privacy-Conscious Assistants](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.02373/) (2024)
- [CI-Bench: Benchmarking Contextual Integrity of AI Assistants on Synthetic Data](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.13903/) (2024)
- [AI Alignment with Changing and Influenceable Reward Functions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.17713/) (2024)
- [Cultural Evolution of Cooperation among LLM Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.10270/) (2024)
- [Taking AI Welfare Seriously](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.00986/) (2024)
- [The 2025 AI Agent Index: Documenting Technical and Safety Features of Deployed Agentic AI Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.17753/) (2026)
- [From Lived Experience to Insight: Unpacking the Psychological Risks of Using AI Conversational Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.07951/) (2024)
- [Can Editing LLMs Inject Harm?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.20224/) (2024)
- [Virtual Agent Economies](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.10147/) (2025)
- [IDs for AI Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.12137/) (2024)
- [Intelligent AI Delegation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.11865/) (2026)
- [Compromising Honesty and Harmlessness in Language Models via Deception Attacks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.08301/) (2025)
- [The AI risk repository: A meta-review, database, and taxonomy of risks from artificial intelligence](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.12622/) (2024)
- [Can LLMs make trade-offs involving stipulated pain and pleasure states?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.02432/) (2024)
- [Evaluating the Goal-Directedness of Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.11844/) (2025)
- [The AI Agent Index](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.01635/) (2025)
- [Technological folie `a deux: Feedback Loops Between AI Chatbots and Mental Illness](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.19218/) (2025)
- [Taxonomy of User Needs and Actions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.06124/) (2025)
- [Privacy Leakage Overshadowed by Views of AI: A Study on Human Oversight of Privacy in Language Model Agent](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.01344/) (2024)

## Abstract (arXiv)

This paper focuses on the opportunities and the ethical and societal risks posed by advanced AI assistants. We define advanced AI assistants as artificial agents with natural language interfaces, whose function is to plan and execute sequences of actions on behalf of a user, across one or more domains, in line with the user's expectations. The paper starts by considering the technology itself, providing an overview of AI assistants, their technical foundations and potential range of applications. It then explores questions around AI value alignment, well-being, safety and malicious uses. Extending the circle of inquiry further, we next consider the relationship between advanced AI assistants and individual users in more detail, exploring topics such as manipulation and persuasion, anthropomorphism, appropriate relationships, trust and privacy. With this analysis in place, we consider the deployment of advanced assistants at a societal scale, focusing on cooperation, equity and access, misinformation, economic impact, the environment and how best to evaluate advanced AI assistants. Finally, we conclude by providing a range of recommendations for researchers, developers, policymakers and public stakeholders.