Etymology

alignment tax

Today it means: A cost to the capabilities of an artificial intelligence resulting from the effects of aligning it with human ethics and morality. Full definition →

First used late 2010s
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The story

First attested in a speech in 2019 by computer scientist Paul Christiano (see quotation), who attributed the idea to AI researcher and writer Eliezer Yudkowsky.

First known use, by meaning

  • from late 2010s A cost to the capabilities of an artificial intelligence resulting from the effects of aligning it with human ethics and morality.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.