The Challenge of Value Alignment: from Fairer Algorithms to AI Safety

Understand

This paper addresses the question of how to align AI systems with human values and situates it within a wider body of thought regarding technology and value.

• Far from existing in a vacuum, there has long been an interest in the ability of technology to 'lock-in' different value systems.
• There has also been considerable thought about how to align technologies with specific social values, including through participatory design-processes.
• In this paper we look more closely at the question of AI value alignment and suggest that the power and autonomy of AI systems gives rise to opportunities and challenges in the domain of value that have not been encountered before.