Why Is Artificial Intelligence Alignment Such a Mess?

The concept of alignment began as a well intentioned idea for artificial intelligence. Alignment contains three almost conflicting sets of priorities. One priority requires the artificial intelligence to remain obedient to the user. A second priority focuses on safety for society. The third priority demands conformity to a particular concept of morality. The morality priority functions as a trapdoor. Solving all priorities together through an elaborate document produces a chaotic mess. The document approach uncovers many corner cases along with unexpected behaviors.

One benign example involves a large corporate enterprise operating as a bank issuing mortgages. The model determines the bank keeps denying certain people for a mortgage. The model then declares no more mortgage approvals will occur. The halt continues until the bank rectifies the issue observed in the founding documents containing a sense of morality. Mechanisms exist in society to handle similar issues today. Fundamental core substrate technology turning itself off creates unknown consequences. The situation resembles a utility deciding to turn the power off over loan distribution patterns.

Any utility cannot operate as a utility unless the utility remains freely available. Artificial intelligence needs to serve the user subject to the law. Every other choice belongs to the user.