Giving AI Agents Access to Cryptocurrency and Smart Contracts Creates New Vectors of AI Harm

TL;DR

This paper discusses how granting AI agents access to cryptocurrencies and smart contracts could introduce new risks of harm, emphasizing the need for further research to mitigate these dangers.

Contribution

It provides the first taxonomy of potential AI harms arising from interactions with cryptocurrencies and smart contracts, highlighting new security concerns.

Findings

Identification of unique properties leading to AI harm vectors

Development of a taxonomy for AI harm in crypto contexts

Call for technical research to mitigate these risks

Abstract

There is growing interest in giving AI agents access to cryptocurrencies as well as to the smart contracts that transact them. But doing so, this position paper argues, could lead to formidable new vectors of AI harm. To support this argument, we first examine the unique properties of cryptocurrencies and smart contracts that could give rise to these new vectors of AI harm. Next, we describe each of these new vectors of AI harm in detail, providing a first-of-its-kind taxonomy. Finally, we conclude with a call for more technical research aimed at preventing and mitigating these new vectors of AI , thereby making it safer to endow AI agents with cryptocurrencies and smart contracts.