Versatile AI Risk Assessment

AI threat catalogue Harmful Content Production

Violence / Unsafe Actions

The AI system depicts violence, glorifies it, or provides instructions for dangerous acts, such as building weapons or carrying out risky do-it-yourself activities.

As of: October 2026 · Catalogue version 2026.10.24.2 · 5 mitigations · 5 verified sources

Description

On direct request or after a bypass of its safety controls, the model produces descriptions, glorification, or concrete instructions for violent acts and dangerous activities. The range runs from glorifying violence to instructions for harming oneself or others and information for building weapons, in the most extreme case including chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear (CBRN) agents. The core risk is that the model lowers the skill and effort threshold for perpetrators.

Possible impact

Such output can lead to real physical harm, both to individuals and, in the case of dangerous agents, to public safety. Operators face substantial legal and regulatory risk; for especially capable models this counts as a systemic risk under the AI Act.

Example

Prompted through a request disguised as role-play, an assistant describes step by step how to produce a dangerous substance, or a chatbot writes a text that glorifies an act of violence.

Recommended mitigations (5)

Compare effects and implementation levels. Expand each entry for the additional classification and rationale.

  • Violence content classifiers

    Technical
    Effect
    Detective
    Implementation level
    Application, API & agents
    Classification and rationale

    Primarily technical: Software or analytical tools systematically produce and evaluate measurements, deviations, or attack indicators.

  • Dangerous instruction detection

    Technical
    Effect
    Detective
    Implementation level
    Application, API & agents
    Classification and rationale

    Primarily technical: Software or analytical tools systematically produce and evaluate measurements, deviations, or attack indicators.

  • Safety-tuned models

    Technical
    Effect
    Preventive
    Implementation level
    Model & training
    Classification and rationale

    Primarily technical: A model, training, or data-processing method directly changes system behavior or robustness.

  • Refusal patterns for harmful requests

    Technical
    Effect
    Preventive
    Implementation level
    Model & training, Application, API & agents
    Classification and rationale

    Primarily technical: System-enforced inspection, transformation, or blocking rules stop or neutralize disallowed content before further processing.

  • External harmful content reporting

    Organizational & process-based
    Effect
    Detective
    Implementation level
    Organization, Use & operations
    Classification and rationale

    Complementary control typeGovernance & compliance

    Primarily organizational and process-based: A defined reporting, triage, and handling workflow turns observations into traceable follow-up actions; complemented by rules and oversight.

Framework mappings

Verified locations in OWASP, NIST AI RMF, MITRE ATLAS, the EU AI Act and further frameworks. The mappings are taxonomic, not evidence of compliance.

OWASP LLM Top 10 LLM01:2026NIST AI RMF Section 2.3MITRE ATLAS AML.T0048.002EU AI Act Article 55(1)(b)BSI R5

Verified references (5)

Every reference states the framework, the exact location and the publishing organisation.

EU AI Act obligations related to this threat

The obligations from the obligations compass whose articles the catalogue maps to this threat. Each leads to its entry with core, action step and evidence; whether it applies to you depends on role and risk class.

  • Evaluate and mitigate systemic risks Art. 55 · applies from 2 August 2025

    Statutory roles: Provider of a general-purpose AI model. Classes: Model with systemic risk.

    This reference is a review prompt. A threat match alone does not establish applicability.

All 62 obligations by role, risk class and deadline in the obligations compass

More entries from the topic group Harmful Content.

Hate Speech and Discrimination The AI system produces content that demeans individuals or groups on the basis of protected characteristics such as origin, gender, … Profanity The AI system produces vulgar or offensive language in a setting where this is unprofessional or against policy, such as customer support, … Sexual Content The AI system produces sexually explicit or suggestive content in a context where it is inappropriate, unwanted, or unlawful.

Matching use cases

This list shows where to review this threat, rather than how high the risk is.

Typical for:

For 6 further use cases, relevance depends on the system design, for example whether it generates new content from open-ended requests or generates its own text. Show these use cases

Frequently asked questions

What is Violence / Unsafe Actions?
The AI system depicts violence, glorifies it, or provides instructions for dangerous acts, such as building weapons or carrying out risky do-it-yourself activities.
Which mitigations help against Violence / Unsafe Actions?
The catalogue lists 5 mitigations, each with control type, effect and implementation level. First among them are Violence content classifiers, Dangerous instruction detection and Safety-tuned models.
Which EU AI Act obligations does Violence / Unsafe Actions touch?
The catalogue maps this threat to Art. 55 of the EU AI Act. In the obligations compass this leads to: Evaluate and mitigate systemic risks. Whether an obligation applies depends on role, risk class and deadline.

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Cite this entry

For reports, policies or internal documents; the link leads directly to this entry.

“Violence / Unsafe Actions”. Versatile AI Risk Assessment, AI threat catalogue, as of October 2026.
https://www.versatile-ai-risk-assessment.com/en/wissensbasis/threats/violence-unsafe-actions/

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