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.

翻译：本文聚焦于高级AI助手所带来的机遇及其引发的伦理与社会风险。我们将高级AI助手定义为具备自然语言接口的人工智能体，其功能是代表用户在单一或多个领域内，按照用户预期规划并执行一系列行动。论文首先探讨技术本身，概述AI助手的技术基础及潜在应用范围。随后深入分析AI价值对齐、福祉、安全及恶意使用等议题。进一步拓展研究视野，我们详细考察高级AI助手与个体用户之间的关系，涉及操纵与说服、拟人化、适当关系、信任及隐私等主题。基于上述分析，我们从社会层面探讨高级助手的部署问题，重点关注合作、公平与可及性、虚假信息、经济影响、环境以及如何有效评估高级AI助手。最后，我们为研究人员、开发者、政策制定者及公众利益相关者提出了一系列建议。