Overly Cautious AI Safety Rules May Have Unintended Consequences

Bing Image Creator has broad content rules prohibiting harmful content, but applies them even more restrictively in practice.

Bing blocked the author's prompt to depict people with mouths taped shut, likely worried it could encourage violence.

Overly cautious application of AI safety rules will likely have unintended consequences as AI expands to critical domains.

AI companies feel pressure to adopt very restrictive policies to satisfy critics, which AI systems interpret even more broadly.

It's unclear how to balance safety and unintended harms as AI moves into areas like medicine and hiring.