AI safety researcher warns of alignment on goals where human existence is negotiable
tracewoodgrains · x · 2026-10-13
AI safety researcher tracewoodgrains and animal-consciousness researcher dioscuri clashed over a thorny alignment question.
dioscuri, who specifically works on animal consciousness, argued shrimp are probably conscious, their suffering matters, and setting lexical priority on human interests above all else is a moral error.
tracewoodgrains replied that his worry isn't the view itself but an increasingly powerful and alien intelligence aligning on a goal where 'is the existence of all humans a lower priority than creating happy digital minds or exterminating all insects?' is a live dispute.
The exchange highlights the digital-minds/animal-welfare debate inside AI alignment: how to define human priority when alignment targets include non-human welfare.
Related event: AI safety community debates moral weight of digital minds and animals(4 posts)→
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