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Objections and responses
Is smarter-than-human AI unrealistic?
How powerful would a superintelligence become?
Can an AI be smarter than humans?
How can an AGI be smarter than all of humanity?
Is AI alignment easy?
We’re going to merge with the machines so this will never be a problem, right?
Isn’t AI just a tool like any other? Won’t it just do what we tell it to?
Wouldn't a superintelligence be smart enough to know right from wrong?
Wouldn't a superintelligence be smart enough to avoid misunderstanding our instructions?
But won't we just design AI to be helpful?
Flawed proposals for setting AI goals
Aren't there easy solutions to AI alignment?
Can we list the ways a task could go disastrously wrong and tell an AI to avoid them?
Could we tell the AI to do what's morally right?
Can you give an AI a goal which involves “minimally impacting the world”?
Can we constrain a goal-directed AI using specified rules?
Why can’t we just use Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics?
Why can't we just make a "child AI" and raise it?
Flawed proposals for controlling AI
Is it possible to limit an AI's interactions with the Internet?
Why can't we just turn the AI off if it starts to misbehave?
Can you stop an advanced AI from upgrading itself?
Can we test an AI to make sure it won't misbehave if it becomes superintelligent?
Why don't we just not build AGI if it's so dangerous?
Why can’t we just “put the AI in a box” so that it can’t influence the outside world?
Dealing with misaligned AGI after deployment
How can AI cause harm if it can't manipulate the physical world?
Wouldn't humans triumph over a rogue AI because there are more of us?
Are corporations superintelligent?
Can't we limit damage from AI systems in the same ways we limit damage from companies?
Will AI be able to think faster than humans?
Wouldn't a superintelligence be slowed down by the need to do physical experiments?
Why would misaligned AI pose a threat that we can’t deal with?
Other issues from AI
Isn’t the real concern with AI something else?
What about people misusing AI?
What about technological unemployment from AI?
What about autonomous weapons?
What about AI-enabled surveillance?
What about automated AI persuasion and propaganda?
What about AI that is biased?
What about deepfakes?
Morality
Isn’t it immoral to control and impose our values on AI?
If I only care about helping people alive today, does AI safety still matter?
Does the importance of AI risk depend on caring about the long-term future?
Wouldn't it be a good thing for humanity to die out?
Objections to AI safety research
Why should we prepare for human-level AI now rather than when it’s closer?
Could AI alignment research be bad? How?
What are some arguments why AI safety might be less important?
Miscellaneous arguments
Isn't capitalism the real unaligned superintelligence?
Aren't AI existential risk concerns just an example of Pascal's mugging?
Wouldn't AIs need to have a power-seeking drive to pose a serious risk?

Can you give an AI a goal which involves “minimally impacting the world”?

1 min read

Suggest changes in Google Docs

Penalizing an AI for affecting the world too much is called impact regularization and is an active area of alignment research.

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Continue with the next entry in "Objections and responses"
Can we constrain a goal-directed AI using specified rules?
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Updated Jan 2025

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Why Not JustAlignment ProposalsOuter AlignmentOpen Problem

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