Alignment is always contextual in regards to the social norms at the time. We’ve not had AI for that long so people assume that the alignment problem is a solve it once for all type of thing instead of an ever changing problem.
It’s very similar in nature as in how they test new technologies for mass adoption. Things have been massively adopted before their safety is thoroughly researched, but you can only do so much before the demand for their necessity and people’s impatience push for their ubiquity, like asbestos and radiation. When we fail to find alternatives for the new demands, it will be massively adopted regardless of their consequences. AI can be thought of as just an extension of computers, specialized to certain tasks. The technology itself is fundamentally the same, how it’s been used is mostly what’s been changing because of the improved efficiency. The technology, computer, has seen mass adoption already, but it’s no longer the same computers as people were using 30 or even 20 years ago. Most new technologies are even as close to multipurpose as the computer, so we are dealing with an unprecedented type of mass adoption event in human history where the technology itself is closely tied to how it’s been used and its ever changing nature of the type of computations people at the time decide to use them for.
Alignment is always contextual in regards to the social norms at the time. We’ve not had AI for that long so people assume that the alignment problem is a solve it once for all type of thing instead of an ever changing problem.
It’s very similar in nature as in how they test new technologies for mass adoption. Things have been massively adopted before their safety is thoroughly researched, but you can only do so much before the demand for their necessity and people’s impatience push for their ubiquity, like asbestos and radiation. When we fail to find alternatives for the new demands, it will be massively adopted regardless of their consequences. AI can be thought of as just an extension of computers, specialized to certain tasks. The technology itself is fundamentally the same, how it’s been used is mostly what’s been changing because of the improved efficiency. The technology, computer, has seen mass adoption already, but it’s no longer the same computers as people were using 30 or even 20 years ago. Most new technologies are even as close to multipurpose as the computer, so we are dealing with an unprecedented type of mass adoption event in human history where the technology itself is closely tied to how it’s been used and its ever changing nature of the type of computations people at the time decide to use them for.