05.12.2025
Concept Creep in Safe AI
This project, led by Dr Laura Fearnley, SAINTS Co-Research Lead, argues that the concept of “safety” in AI has undergone concept creep, a phenomenon which describes the gradual semantic expansion of harm-related concepts. First identified in psychology, concept creep describes how concepts broaden vertically to include less severe phenomena and horizontally to encompass qualitatively new ones. In this paper, Dr Laura Fearnley and Professor Ibrahim Habli, SAINTS Director, argue that safety in the context of AI has expanded along both dimensions.
The paper analysis contrasts a baseline definition of safety, grounded in traditional safety science, with contemporary uses of the term in AI discourse. It demonstrates that safety has crept horizontally to include phenomena such as systemic injustice and existential risks, and vertically to cover less severe concerns related to mental or emotional wellbeing. The primary aim of the work is to map the conceptual expansion of safety. The paper stops short of arguing whether this expansion constitutes progress or regress for the field, however, the authors suggest that some of the promising developments and the problematic trends recently witnessed within AI safety discourse can be understood, at least in part, as a consequence of concept creep.
