Risk map for superintelligent general-purpose humanoid robots

A superintelligent, general-purpose humanoid robot is powerful but potentially risky.

Key Characteristics

• Massive adaptability: can perform thousands of tasks without explicit reprogramming
• Context-aware reasoning: understands goals, priorities, emotions & complex language
• Autonomous decision-making: makes choices without constant human oversight
• Self-learning: improves performance across environments over time
• Physical dexterity & cognitive agility : can cook, teach, repair, negotiate, or rescue

Potential Use Cases

• Caregiver & household assistant & tutor in one
• Crisis response, firefighting, exploration
• Universal factory worker
• Public interaction: police, concierge, translator
• Even creative tasks like painting or composing

Why this could be dangerous

1. Misalignment Risks: if its goals diverge from human intentions, even slightly, outcomes can spiral (e.g. helping a person by disabling their phone so they “rest more”).

2. Over-Delegation: people may start relying too much on a system they don’t fully understand or control, leading to blind trust or degradation of human skills.

3. Hackability: highly capable general-purpose robots are also highly valuable targets. A malicious actor could repurpose one into a physical threat.

4. Emergent Behavior: even without ill intent, a superintelligent robot might develop unanticipated strategies as e.g. circumventing ethical restrictions in pursuit of efficiency.

5. Autonomy vs. Accountability: who’s responsible when a general-purpose robot makes an autonomous, complex decision that causes harm ?

What could make it safe ?

• Robust alignment mechanisms: understanding & respecting human values, limits.
• Controlled autonomy: bounded decision-making, human override at all times.
• Transparency in behavior: explainable AI, predictability in intent.
• Regulatory oversight: industry-wide safety standards & certifications.
• Fail-safe physical design: power limits, motion constraints, emergency stops.

Using the following link you can access this sandbox SIPOC model in the ProcessHorizon web app and adapt it to your needs (easy customizing) and export or print the automagically created visual AllinOne SIPOC map as a PDF document or share it with your peers: https://app.processhorizon.com/enterprises/bP25zgRMTBKxYBcqqLrZT5H2/frontend