The AI “alignment problem” posits that as AI systems become more intelligent, it will become more difficult to align their goals with those of their developers. An AI system could, in theory, “go rogue”, devising undesirable and unpredictable strategies to achieve an objective.

The paperclip maximizer is a thought experiment that explores this concept: If a superintelligent AI was tasked with the single purpose of creating paperclips, it might commandeer the world’s resources to accomplish its goal at all costs, turning everything into paperclips. Eventually it might even realize humans, trying to stop the AI, were a distraction and eliminate us: clearly a misalignment between AI and human interests.

Though obviously outlandish, the paperclip problem has become a pop culture touch point for AI. In real life, constraints and rules prevent systems from going beyond their intended purposes. But many Big Tech founders and CEOs use this hypothetical to create buzz around their large language models (LLMs). Do chatbots really have the power to make humanity extinct? No. But it makes them sound impressive and, more importantly, it conceals the real AI alignment problem that’s harming us right now: Big Tech LLMs are invading our privacy, stealing our data, and devaluing our information economy. It’s both a sales strategy and misdirection, designed to keep us looking into the future instead of looking at the control we’re ceding in the present.

• Are we on track for a dystopian future?
• New tools for surveillance capitalism
• Exploiting your data for training purposes
• There’s a better solution for LLMs
• Is AI alignment really a threat?

...read more at proton.me