Avoiding Negative Side Effects due to Incomplete Knowledge of AI Systems

Autonomous agents acting in the real-world often operate based on models that ignore certain aspects of the environment. The incompleteness of any given model—handcrafted or machine acquired—is inevitable due to practical limitations of any modeling technique for complex real-world settings. Due to the limited fidelity of its model, an agent’s actions may have unexpected, undesirable consequences during
execution. Learning to recognize and avoid such negative side effects of an agent’s actions is critical to improve the safety and reliability of autonomous systems. Mitigating negative side effects is an emerging research topic that is attracting increased attention due to the rapid growth in the deployment of AI systems and their broad societal impacts. This article provides a comprehensive overview of different forms of negative side effects and the recent research efforts to address them. We identify key characteristics of negative side effects, highlight the challenges in avoiding negative side effects, and discuss recently developed approaches, contrasting their benefits and limitations. The article concludes with a discussion of open questions and suggestions for future research directions.