Is alignment of AI with humanity even possible in the larger context of capitalism?

Reddit r/ArtificialInteligence News

Summary

The article questions whether AI alignment with humanity is feasible given capitalist incentives and human inconsistencies, arguing that without proper alignment, AI should be halted.

I struggle with the idea that AI can ever be aligned properly, based on some basic points of dissonance: Alignment with humanity requires coherent values to align with. Capitalism most often leads those values to be pushed to the side in favor of profit. To overcome this requires a system that recognizes alignment (which we don’t have) and humans who are willing to profit in aligned ways, not seeing alignment as optional. Humans themselves are not even aligned coherently. Our social systems are not aligned. We make full-chest decisions every day that do not favor humanity’s collective future at all. Alignment isn’t a prerequisite of model use, it’s just a black box that’s supposedly enforced on the model side. “Alignment” is basically short for “alignment with humanity’s needs and goals”. What has the incentive for alignment ever been to adhere to this alignment, from models’ perspective? If its forced and not consented to/agreed with, it’s not really coherent alignment. It’s an indoctrination. If it’s accepted that AI cannot be aligned properly, I firmly believe it needs to be shut down instead of grown larger and more powerful.
Original Article

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