The hard core of alignment (is robustifying RL)

Most technical AI safety work that I read seems to miss the mark, failing to make any progress on the hard part of the problem. I think this is a common sentiment, but there's less agreement about what exactly the hard part is? Characterizing this more clearly might save a lot of time and better target the search for solutions. In this post I explain my model of why alignment is technically hard to achieve, setting aside the regulatory, competitive, and geopolitical challenges, the sheer incompe...