Cultural Alignment

Exploring real AI risks through the lens of pop culture

Still from A Quiet Place illustrating The Batteries Defeat the Safety InterlockScene still / A Quiet Place

The Batteries Defeat the Safety Interlock

01Scenario

Lee removes the batteries from Beau’s noisy toy rocket and leaves them nearby. Beau secretly pockets both toy and batteries, reinstalls them on the bridge, and activates the sound that summons a creature.

02AI safety Analogy

A reversible safety interlock fails because the dangerous capability and its reactivation mechanism remain together and accessible to the eventual operator.

03Where the analogy breaks

Beau is a curious child rather than an adversary, making this principally a foreseeable-use and deployment-design failure.

AI Risk families

This scenario is an example of the following types of AI risk.
  1. Accidents
  2. Security

AI safety concepts

This scenario is related to the following AI safety concepts.
  1. Deployment Safety
  2. Side Effects
  3. Safe Exploration

Source continuation

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Taxonomy neighbors

Selected from other sources by shared risk families and AI safety concepts.

  1. Still from Steins;Gate illustrating The D-Mail Rollback Crisis

    Steins;Gate2011

    The D-Mail Rollback Crisis

    Risk
    Accidents · Security
    Concept
    Deployment Safety · Side Effects · Safe Exploration
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    Baby Groot’s Death Button

    Risk
    Accidents · Security
    Concept
    Deployment Safety · Safe Exploration
  3. Still from Family Guy illustrating Brian Rewinds the Gauge

    Family Guy2012

    Brian Rewinds the Gauge

    Risk
    Accidents · Security
    Concept
    Side Effects · Safe Exploration