To make sure these more complex and indirect effects of technology are not neglected, discussions of AI risk should complement the misuse and accident perspectives with a structural perspective. This perspective considers not only how a technological system may be misused or behave in unintended ways, but also how technology shapes the broader environment in ways that could be disruptive or harmful. For example, does it create overlap between defensive and offensive actions, thereby making it more difficult to distinguish aggressive actors from defensive ones? Does it produce dual-use capabilities that could easily diffuse? Does it lead to greater uncertainty or misunderstanding? Does it open up new trade-offs between private gain and public harm, or between the safety and performance of a system? Does it make competition appear to be more of a winner-take-all situation? We call this perspective “structural” because it focuses on what social scientists often refer to as “structure,” in contrast to the “agency” focus of the other perspectives.
Thanks for writing. I think this is a useful framing!
Where does the term “structural” come from?
The related literature I’ve seen uses the word “systemic”, eg, the field of system safety. A good example is this talk (and slides, eg slide 24).
I first learned about the term “structural risk” in this article from 2019 by Remco Zwetsloot and Allan Dafoe, which was included in the AGI Safety Fundamentals curriculum.