https://vegasharmon.com/works/what-just-happened-a-retrospective-of-ai-alignment/ Recent content in What Just Happened? a Retrospective of AI Alignment on Vegas Harmon Hugo en Mon, 12 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://vegasharmon.com/commonplace/alignment-exists-because-ml-never-became-a-science/ Mon, 12 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://vegasharmon.com/commonplace/alignment-exists-because-ml-never-became-a-science/ One reason people are confused about AI alignment losing its ability to make scientific progress is that machine learning as a whole is also not a very scientific field by the standard I’m applying. Even most early AI researchers were more focused on building artificial intelligence than on understanding scientific principles of cognition. The rise of deep learning exacerbated this problem, as throwing more compute and engineering effort at an AI became arbitrarily scalable. https://vegasharmon.com/commonplace/peer-review-isn-t-the-point-scientific-inquiry-is/ Mon, 12 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://vegasharmon.com/commonplace/peer-review-isn-t-the-point-scientific-inquiry-is/ A lot of the blame should fall on misguided narratives (common across academia) about what makes science work, which have been entrenched by the best-funded scientific institutions. A core scientific norm is that disputes should be resolved with reference to concrete empirical tests or rigorous proofs, judged by the scrutiny of one’s scientific peers. But that’s very different from the idea that ideas should be developed via paper-sized units of work which are each individually defended and justified.