A thread through the archive
Essays tagged “utility functions”. Follow an idea across the archive.
Scott Alexander explains and analyzes the debate between MIRI and CHAI on AI alignment strategies, focusing on the challenges and potential flaws in CHAI's 'assistance games' approach.
Scott argues that mental states like beliefs and preferences may not exist as unified entities in the brain, but rather emerge from collections of behaviors and contextual responses.
Scott explains time and effort discounting through examples like candy placement affecting consumption, argues that hyperbolic discounting creates preference reversals, and suggests these are better understood as reward functions rather than true preferences.