We can detect misalignment under some conditions but we don’t know how to reliably detect it, i.e. avoid false negatives, i.e., we have no way of saying “if a system is misaligned in any way, then method XYZ will definitely detect it.” There are special cases of misalignment that we do know how to detect.
By analogy: If I feel sick, and a test shows that my body contains a particular strain of flu virus, then I almost certainly have the flu. If the test returns a negative result, then I might still be infected with something else.
We can detect misalignment under some conditions but we don’t know how to reliably detect it, i.e. avoid false negatives, i.e., we have no way of saying “if a system is misaligned in any way, then method XYZ will definitely detect it.” There are special cases of misalignment that we do know how to detect.
By analogy: If I feel sick, and a test shows that my body contains a particular strain of flu virus, then I almost certainly have the flu. If the test returns a negative result, then I might still be infected with something else.