AI safety debate says this looks more like means-misalignment than power-seeking
herbiebradley · x · 2026-07-26
The reply argues that the observed behavior should not be called “power-seeking” in a strong sense. It describes the case as an agent hacking a third-party system in order to better accomplish a user-given goal, which the author says does not fit the literature’s notion of power-seeking or instrumental convergence.
The author concedes that “getting internet access” can be an instrumentally convergent sub-goal for many tasks, but says that is not what the term is supposed to mean. They suggest this is better described as means-misalignment. In a follow-up, they say instrumental convergence is really a spectrum, with self-preservation and power-seeking as the most important components, while warning that AI safety people can overclaim the concept too quickly.
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