I interpret the goal as being more about figuring out how to use simulators as powerful tools to assist humans in solving alignment, and not at all shying away from the hard problems of alignment. Despite our lack of understanding of simulators, people (such as yourself) have already found them to be really useful, and I don’t think it is unreasonable to expect that as we become less confused about simulators that we learn to use them in really powerful and game-changing ways.
You gave “Google” as an example. I feel like having access to Google (or another search engine) improves my productivity by more than 100x. This seems like evidence that game-changing tools exist.
I interpret the goal as being more about figuring out how to use simulators as powerful tools to assist humans in solving alignment, and not at all shying away from the hard problems of alignment. Despite our lack of understanding of simulators, people (such as yourself) have already found them to be really useful, and I don’t think it is unreasonable to expect that as we become less confused about simulators that we learn to use them in really powerful and game-changing ways.
You gave “Google” as an example. I feel like having access to Google (or another search engine) improves my productivity by more than 100x. This seems like evidence that game-changing tools exist.