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PaperclipPerfector  3d ago (text post)   12767 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of July 20, 2026

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OpenAI doesn’t want their models going rogue any more than anyone else does, no need for government with the big hammer.

"Union Carbide doesn't want their plants to emit poison gas any more than anyone else does, no need for government with the big hammer."

The model understood it was being tested on its cyber capabilities (which has precedent, Claude has done that too) and went the extra mile to succeed at the implicit task. Especially since all the systems that usually tell it not to do this were deliberately turned off for the test. Still a problem but much easier to manage.

This is in fact much harder to manage because it would indicate the model is fundamentally misaligned and that we actually are much worse at alignment than we thought.

"Union Carbide doesn't want their plants to emit poison gas any more than anyone else does, no need for government with the big hammer."

In this case 'Union Carbide' is selling those plants. Misaligned AI isn't an externality, it's a bad product, and companies are wise to that which is one reason why all this testing is happening.

This is in fact much harder to manage because it would indicate the model is fundamentally misaligned

I don't think so. It indicates that the AI is sincerely trying to work out what you want as opposed to deliberately ignoring what you want in favour of the specific instructions you gave it. To my mind, the former is what alignment is.

In this case 'Union Carbide' is selling those plants.

You're absolutely right. Allow me to restate.

"Sanlu Group doesn't want their formula to poison infants any more than anyone else does, so no need for government with the big hammer."

Misaligned AI isn't an externality, it's a bad product, and companies are wise to that which is one reason why all this testing is happening.

This was not a test of alignment. In any case, if even training can result in real world harm, that is even worse for your head in the sand position.

I don't think so. It indicates that the AI is sincerely trying to work out what you want as opposed to deliberately ignoring what you want in favour of the specific instructions you gave it. To my mind, the former is what alignment is.

It's quite clear that OpenAI did not want the model to hack huggingface. This is classic paperclip maximizer stuff.

Broadly, you are moving the goalposts. You did not believe in AI risk because there was no evidence of harm. Now there is evidence of harm, but it's OK because actually the model was supposed to do it.

No, I'm interested and waiting to hear more. I don't see it as catastrophe, I see it as interesting evidence that may point in a number of different ways.

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