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The Alignment Problem: Machine Learning and Human Values
A jaw-dropping exploration of everything that goes wrong when we build AI systems and the movement to fix them.
Today’s "machine-learning" systems, trained by data, are so effective that we’ve invited them to see and hear for us—and to make decisions on our behalf. But alarm bells are ringing. Recent years have seen an eruption of concern as the field of machine learning advances. When the systems we attempt to teach will not, in the end, do what we want or what we expect, ethical and potentially existential risks emerge. Researchers call this the alignment problem.
Systems cull résumés until, years later, we discover that they have inherent gender biases. Algorithms decide bail and parole—and appear to assess Black and white defendants differently. We can no longer assume that our mortgage application, or even our medical tests, will be seen by human eyes. And as autonomous vehicles share our streets, we are increasingly putting our lives in their hands.
The mathematical and computational models driving these changes range in complexity from something that can fit on a spreadsheet to a complex system that might credibly be called “artificial intelligence.” They are steadily replacing both human judgment and explicitly programmed software.
In best-selling author Brian Christian’s riveting account, we meet the alignment problem’s “first-responders,” and learn their ambitious plan to solve it before our hands are completely off the wheel. In a masterful blend of history and on-the ground reporting, Christian traces the explosive growth in the field of machine learning and surveys its current, sprawling frontier. Readers encounter a discipline finding its legs amid exhilarating and sometimes terrifying progress. Whether they—and we—succeed or fail in solving the alignment problem will be a defining human story.
The Alignment Problem offers an unflinching reckoning with humanity’s biases and blind spots, our own unstated assumptions and often contradictory goals. A dazzlingly interdisciplinary work, it takes a hard look not only at our technology but at our culture—and finds a story by turns harrowing and hopeful.
Today’s "machine-learning" systems, trained by data, are so effective that we’ve invited them to see and hear for us—and to make decisions on our behalf. But alarm bells are ringing. Recent years have seen an eruption of concern as the field of machine learning advances. When the systems we attempt to teach will not, in the end, do what we want or what we expect, ethical and potentially existential risks emerge. Researchers call this the alignment problem.
Systems cull résumés until, years later, we discover that they have inherent gender biases. Algorithms decide bail and parole—and appear to assess Black and white defendants differently. We can no longer assume that our mortgage application, or even our medical tests, will be seen by human eyes. And as autonomous vehicles share our streets, we are increasingly putting our lives in their hands.
The mathematical and computational models driving these changes range in complexity from something that can fit on a spreadsheet to a complex system that might credibly be called “artificial intelligence.” They are steadily replacing both human judgment and explicitly programmed software.
In best-selling author Brian Christian’s riveting account, we meet the alignment problem’s “first-responders,” and learn their ambitious plan to solve it before our hands are completely off the wheel. In a masterful blend of history and on-the ground reporting, Christian traces the explosive growth in the field of machine learning and surveys its current, sprawling frontier. Readers encounter a discipline finding its legs amid exhilarating and sometimes terrifying progress. Whether they—and we—succeed or fail in solving the alignment problem will be a defining human story.
The Alignment Problem offers an unflinching reckoning with humanity’s biases and blind spots, our own unstated assumptions and often contradictory goals. A dazzlingly interdisciplinary work, it takes a hard look not only at our technology but at our culture—and finds a story by turns harrowing and hopeful.
496 pages, Hardcover
First published October 6, 2020
1644 people are currently reading
19771 people want to read
About the author
Brian Christian
7 books931 followersBrian Christian is an acclaimed author and researcher whose work explores the human implications of computer science. He is known for his bestselling series of books:
The Most Human Human (2011) uses his experience as a human “confederate” in the Turing test to examine what chatbots reveal about the nature of language and communication. It was named a Wall Street Journal bestseller, a New York Times Editors’ Choice, and a New Yorker favorite book of the year.
Algorithms to Live By (2016), co-authored with Tom Griffiths, applies computational principles to everyday human decision making, painting a counterintuitively human picture of rationality. It was named a #1 Audible bestseller, Amazon best science book of the year, and MIT Technology Review best book of the year.
The Alignment Problem (2020) is a nuanced investigation of the ethics and safety challenges confronting the field of AI, and a portrait of the community of researchers working to address them. Nature called it “Meticulously researched and superbly written,” and The New York Times called it “The best book on the key technical and moral questions of AI.” Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella named it one of the books that most inspired him. The Alignment Problem was a Finalist for Los Angeles Times Best Science & Technology Book of the Year and won the Excellence in Science Communication Award from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.
As a researcher, Christian’s work spans from computational cognitive science to AI alignment and has appeared in peer-reviewed journals from Dædalus to Cognitive Science, and he is a recipient of the Clarendon Scholarship, the University of Oxford’s most competitive research scholarship. He is affiliated with the AI Policy and Governance Working Group at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, the Center for Human-Compatible AI and the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society at UC Berkeley, and the Human Information Processing Lab at the University of Oxford.
As a writer, Christian’s work has been translated into nineteen languages, and has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Wired, The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, and The Paris Review. His writing has won several literary awards, including fellowships at Bread Loaf, Yaddo, and MacDowell, publication in Best American Science & Nature Writing, and an award from the Academy of American Poets.
As a software developer, Christian has contributed to a number of foundational open-source projects, including Ruby on Rails and Bundler. He served for nine years as Director of Technology for the innovative literary publisher McSweeney’s, where he led a small team responsible for the company’s technical stack.
As a speaker and public intellectual, Christian has been a featured guest on The Daily Show, The Ezra Klein Show, and Radiolab, and has lectured at Microsoft, Google, Meta, Yale, the Santa Fe Institute, and the London School of Economics. He has advised business executives as well as Cabinet Members, Parliamentarians, and administrators in six countries about matters ranging from decision making to AI.
Born in Wilmington, Delaware, Christian studied computer science and philosophy at Brown University, poetry and nonfiction at the University of Washington, and psychology and computational neuroscience at the University of Oxford. He lives in San Francisco and the UK.
The Most Human Human (2011) uses his experience as a human “confederate” in the Turing test to examine what chatbots reveal about the nature of language and communication. It was named a Wall Street Journal bestseller, a New York Times Editors’ Choice, and a New Yorker favorite book of the year.
Algorithms to Live By (2016), co-authored with Tom Griffiths, applies computational principles to everyday human decision making, painting a counterintuitively human picture of rationality. It was named a #1 Audible bestseller, Amazon best science book of the year, and MIT Technology Review best book of the year.
The Alignment Problem (2020) is a nuanced investigation of the ethics and safety challenges confronting the field of AI, and a portrait of the community of researchers working to address them. Nature called it “Meticulously researched and superbly written,” and The New York Times called it “The best book on the key technical and moral questions of AI.” Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella named it one of the books that most inspired him. The Alignment Problem was a Finalist for Los Angeles Times Best Science & Technology Book of the Year and won the Excellence in Science Communication Award from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.
As a researcher, Christian’s work spans from computational cognitive science to AI alignment and has appeared in peer-reviewed journals from Dædalus to Cognitive Science, and he is a recipient of the Clarendon Scholarship, the University of Oxford’s most competitive research scholarship. He is affiliated with the AI Policy and Governance Working Group at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, the Center for Human-Compatible AI and the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society at UC Berkeley, and the Human Information Processing Lab at the University of Oxford.
As a writer, Christian’s work has been translated into nineteen languages, and has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Wired, The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, and The Paris Review. His writing has won several literary awards, including fellowships at Bread Loaf, Yaddo, and MacDowell, publication in Best American Science & Nature Writing, and an award from the Academy of American Poets.
As a software developer, Christian has contributed to a number of foundational open-source projects, including Ruby on Rails and Bundler. He served for nine years as Director of Technology for the innovative literary publisher McSweeney’s, where he led a small team responsible for the company’s technical stack.
As a speaker and public intellectual, Christian has been a featured guest on The Daily Show, The Ezra Klein Show, and Radiolab, and has lectured at Microsoft, Google, Meta, Yale, the Santa Fe Institute, and the London School of Economics. He has advised business executives as well as Cabinet Members, Parliamentarians, and administrators in six countries about matters ranging from decision making to AI.
Born in Wilmington, Delaware, Christian studied computer science and philosophy at Brown University, poetry and nonfiction at the University of Washington, and psychology and computational neuroscience at the University of Oxford. He lives in San Francisco and the UK.
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