Ex-Microsoft Exec Sinofsky Slams 'Alignment' Talk: AI Failures Are Just Bugs, Not Demons
soumitrashukla9 · x · 2026-09-18
Steven Sinofsky, ex-Microsoft executive turned a16z partner, argues AI companies use words like "aligned" to make it impossible for anyone to understand what they've actually done.
His core point: "The AI failed to be aligned" really means "there was a bug in the software." "We had bugs in spreadsheets, and we didn't sit around in a circle and pray to the gods of alignment. When Word ate your file, we didn't think demons had taken over Word." Statistics-based decisions don't exempt the product from doing what you want — "your statistics are wrong. That's just a bug in your product."
A representative skeptic take that reframes AI safety language as ordinary software engineering.
Related event: Ex-Microsoft Exec Sinofsky: Stop Saying AI Is "Misaligned", Call It a Bug(2 posts)→
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