Alignment seems quite similar to the problem of imbuing AIs with artistic taste. Morality and taste are both hard to verify and subjective (or inter-subjective). Alignment has in practice the further difficulty that deception may play a role. I.e., even after managing to train moral principles into an AI system, you have to make sure they actually act as a guide for action.
That said, my very subjective impression is that AI is far ahead in terms of ethical taste compared to artistic taste. Perhaps this is thanks to the fact that alignment has been considered a core AI problem for a much longer time.
You missed “trying.” Succeeding requires certain capabilities, but trying to do it does not. I believe there’s much more risk from AIs not trying to do what the operator wants than trying and failing.
the observation—that aesthetics and morality are complementary—is very sharp. but i’m not sure what it has to do with alignment in particular.
it’s a bit like saying “the problem of getting ais to cultivate chickens is just a problem of getting them to cultivate eggs!”[1] true, of course, but more a fact about chickens and eggs than about ais.
Alignment seems quite similar to the problem of imbuing AIs with artistic taste. Morality and taste are both hard to verify and subjective (or inter-subjective). Alignment has in practice the further difficulty that deception may play a role. I.e., even after managing to train moral principles into an AI system, you have to make sure they actually act as a guide for action.
That said, my very subjective impression is that AI is far ahead in terms of ethical taste compared to artistic taste. Perhaps this is thanks to the fact that alignment has been considered a core AI problem for a much longer time.
Disagree for the meaning of “alignment” I most care about, where alignment is about trying to do what the operator wants.
“make the world better!” <-- doing what this operator wants requires some aesthetic sensibility.
You missed “trying.” Succeeding requires certain capabilities, but trying to do it does not. I believe there’s much more risk from AIs not trying to do what the operator wants than trying and failing.
i see your point, thanks.
If you assign a different meaning to the word, then you’re talking about a different thing, and the point changes accordingly.
I agree.
the observation—that aesthetics and morality are complementary—is very sharp. but i’m not sure what it has to do with alignment in particular.
it’s a bit like saying “the problem of getting ais to cultivate chickens is just a problem of getting them to cultivate eggs!”[1] true, of course, but more a fact about chickens and eggs than about ais.
(the chickens will be cultivated to live happy and fulfilling chicken lives, in this hypothetical.)