System-Induced Harms Without Mistaken Beliefs

[A half-baked AI-assisted follow-up to System-Induced Vulnerability in Human Users of AI.] The previous post described system-induced vulnerability as increased human susceptibility to consequential harm produced or amplified by AI systems over time through repeated interactions and bidirectional feedback loops. Taking after much of the literature on this topic, which also frame the problem in that manner, several of its examples involved situating a harm in relation to mistaken premises or distorted understandings of reality. Those remain relevant, but they do not exhaust the ways these human-AI interactions can contribute to harm. Importantly: a system does not need to distort someone’s understanding of reality to contribute to harmful changes in their behavior or functioning. Engagement itself as a mechanism In their 2026 paper, “Playing with the dials of belief,” Hamilton Morrin and colleagues explain: …we are aware now of cases where the most detrimental feature of the spiral is…