Can't we just tell an AI to do what we want?

There are two main issues with this:

  • First,

If we could, it would solve a large part of the alignment problem.

The challenge is, how do we code this? Converting something to formal mathematics that can be understood by a computer program is much harder than just saying it in natural language, and proposed AI goal architectures are no exception. Complicated computer programs are usually the result of months of testing and debugging.