Access Controls Will Solve the Dual-Use Dilemma

AI safety systems face the dual-use dilemma. It is unclear whether to answer dual-use requests, since the same query could be either harmless or harmful depending on who made it and why. To make better decisions, such systems would need to examine requests' real-world context, but currently, they lack access to this information. Instead, they sometimes end up making arbitrary choices that result in refusing legitimate queries and allowing harmful ones, which hurts both utility and safety. To address this, we propose a conceptual framework based on access controls where only verified users can access dual-use outputs. We describe the framework's components, analyse its feasibility, and explain how it addresses both over-refusals and under-refusals. While only a high-level proposal, our work takes the first step toward giving model providers more granular tools for managing dual-use content. Such tools would enable users to access more capabilities without sacrificing safety, and offer regulators new options for targeted policies.