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Balancing autonomy and human control in AI systems from "summary" of Human Compatible by Stuart Russell
The central challenge of AI alignment is to create machines that operate in the real world, interacting with a wide range of people and situations, while remaining aligned with human values. There is a fundamental tension between autonomy and control in AI systems. On the one hand, autonomous systems are necessary for efficiency and scalability. On the other hand, human oversight and intervention can prevent catastrophic failures and ensure that AI systems do not violate ethical norms. One way to address this tension is to design AI systems that are uncertain about their objectives and seek human guidance when necessary. This requires developing AI systems that can reason about the uncertainty in their objectives and seek feedback from humans to ensure alignment with human values. By allowing for human intervention when necessary, we can ensure that AI systems remain aligned with human values while still being able to act autonomously in a wide range of situations. Another approach is to design AI systems such that they are aligned with human values by default. This requires specifying human values in a formal, mathematically precise way and ensuring that AI systems optimize for those values in all situations. By designing AI systems in this way, we can reduce the need for human oversight and intervention, allowing AI systems to operate autonomously while remaining aligned with human values.- Achieving a balance between autonomy and human control in AI systems requires careful design and engineering. By developing AI systems that are uncertain about their objectives and seek human guidance when necessary, or by designing AI systems that are aligned with human values by default, we can ensure that AI systems operate effectively in the real world while remaining aligned with human values.
