Given that AI systems are becoming increasingly capable and widely deployed, we have to think carefully about the multifarious effects their adoption will have on our individual and collective lives. In this sequence, I will focus specifically on how AI can come to substantially affect what it is that we value, as well as the mechanisms by which this may occur.
This sequence introduces the “Value Change Problem” (VCP). I will argue why I think it’s a critical aspect of ethical AI design, and outline what risks we might expect if we fail to properly address it.
This is a shortened and slightly adapted version of academic work I have submitted for publication elsewhere. The original work was written mainly with an academic philosophy audience in mind. If you’re interested in reading the original (longer) version, feel free to reach out.
The core claim of VCP can be summarised as follows:
AI alignment must address the problem of (il)legitimate value change; that is, the problem of making sure AI systems neither cause value change illegitimately, nor forestall legitimate cases of value change in humans and society.
This case resides on three core premises:
From this, I conclude that we ought to avoid building AI systems that disrespect or exploit the malleability of human values, such as by causing illegitimate value changes or by preventing legitimate ones. I will refer to this as the ‘Value Change Problem’ (VCP). After having established the core case for VCP, the remaining two posts discuss in some more depth the risks that may result from inadequately addressing the VCP.
If you are already on board with each of the premises, you may instead want to directly skip to reading the discussion of risks (posts 4 and 5).
I consider two main categories of risks: (post 4) risks from causing illegitimate value change, as well as (post 5) risks from (illegitimately) preventing legitimate value change. For each of these I want to ask: What is the risk? What are plausible mechanisms by which these risks manifest? What are ways in which these risks manifest already, and what are the ways in which they are likely to be exacerbated going forward, as AI systems become more advanced and more widely deployed?
In the first case—risks from causing illegitimate value change—, leading with the example of recommender systems today, I will argue that performative predictors can come to affect that which they set out to predict—among others, human values.
In the second case—risks from preventing legitimate value change—, I will argue that value collapse—the idea that hyper-explication of values tends to weaken our epistemic attitudes towards the world and our values—can threaten the possibility of self-determined and open-ended value exploration and, consequently, the possibility of legitimate value change. In both cases, we should expect (unless appropriate countermeasures are taken) the same dynamic to be exacerbated—both in strength and scope—with the development of more advanced AI systems, and their increasingly pervasive deployment.
The different posts are more or less self-contained and can be read on their own.
I welcome thoughts, constructive criticism, and ideas for relevant future work.
In one sense, this analysis is intended to be a contribution to our understanding of the risk landscape related to building increasingly capable, autonomous and widely deployed AI systems.
In another sense, I believe that some of the reflections on the nature of values contained in this discussion are relevant on the path to proposals for ambitious value learning by helping us characterise (some of) the outlines/shapes of an adequate theory of value.
I believe that the problem of (il)legitimate value change is an integral part of the problem of aligning advanced AI systems. As such, the question we need to ask about the ethical design of advanced AI systems should not be limited to the question of what values we want to embed in them, but also how we decide on the forms of value change that are (il)legitimate, and how to design and deploy systems such that do not disrespect or exploit value malleability.
Note that, while I hope to have been able to make initial steps towards a satisfactory characterisation of the Value Change Problem, more work is needed to improve our understanding of the specific ways in which AI systems can (and already do) cause value change, when cases of value change are legitimate or illegitimate, and how to build AI systems that reliably avoid causing illegitimate value change and potentially promote legitimate value change.
I am grateful for useful comments and discussions to my thesis supervisor
Ioannis Votsis, my colleagues at ACS (in particular Simon and Clem), Hunter Muir, Tsvi BT, TJ and likely others I’m forgetting here.
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