(Produced as part of the ML Alignment & Theory Scholars Program -  Winter 2024-25 Cohort)

This post introduces a novel mechanism—"personality-shift tokens"—designed to detect alignment failures using a single model that generates two separate outputs in sequence.

The core insight is that by creating a "second personality" within the model that operates under different training objectives, we can potentially elicit latent knowledge and detect alignment failures that would otherwise remain hidden. We run a single model with two different personalities, where one is a pure problem solver and the other does an alignment-focused retrospective.

Think of this as similar to how a person might solve a problem first, then step back to critique their own solution—all using the same brain but with different objectives at each stage.

(Note: This is a summary of older thoughts of minde about AI Alignment. This predates the arrival of LLMs and I assumed back then that AI would be both more agentic and more interpretable.)

The problem of AI alignment is one of the most important questions we need to answer to safeguard humanity's future. How do you ensure that an Artificial General Intelligence will behave ethically? 

I outline a general approach to achieve this goal that counterintuitively relies on confusing the AI on purpose.

I read about an outside-the-box solution to the Hardest Logic Puzzle Ever and took it as inspiration.

I came up with an even better solution, which doesn't just solve the original problem, but also mind-controls a god as a side-effect, giving you the ability to have arbitrary wishes granted.

I expect that the technology necessary to accurately detect lies will become available in the next couple of decades.

The impact of such a technology on all aspects of life would be enormous.

Why the most technical parts of my work keep getting easier, and the most irreplaceable parts have nothing at all to do with AI.

I am a hobby author. The Adventures of Rania Mortal the Perfectly Normal Elf is a finished fantasy comedy with very strong metafiction elements. I used this novel to explore several of my ideas in greater details. For example, the story contains an organization with perfect lie detection, which explores my ideas from The Accessible Mind and it talks about the dangers of AI research and possible ways to counter them, which forms a backdrop for the fantasy elements of the story.