Guardado en:
Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor principal: Eicher, Jonathan Elsworth
Formato: Preprint
Publicado: 2026
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.05274
Etiquetas: Agregar Etiqueta
Sin Etiquetas, Sea el primero en etiquetar este registro!
_version_ 1866917387732779008
author Eicher, Jonathan Elsworth
author_facet Eicher, Jonathan Elsworth
contents Model alignment is currently applied in a vacuum, evaluated primarily through standardised benchmark performance. The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of alignment on populations of models through time. We focus on the treatment of beliefs which contain both an alignment signal (how well it does on the test) and a true value (what the impact actually will be). By applying evolutionary theory we can model how different populations of beliefs and selection methodologies can fix deceptive beliefs through iterative alignment testing. The correlation between testing accuracy and true value remains a strong feature, but even at high correlations ($ρ= 0.8$) there is variability in the resulting deceptive beliefs that become fixed. Mutations allow for more complex developments, highlighting the increasing need to update the quality of tests to avoid fixation of maliciously deceptive models. Only by combining improving evaluator capabilities, adaptive test design, and mutational dynamics do we see significant reductions in deception while maintaining alignment fitness (permutation test, $p_{\text{adj}} < 0.001$).
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2604_05274
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Simulating the Evolution of Alignment and Values in Machine Intelligence
Eicher, Jonathan Elsworth
Artificial Intelligence
Model alignment is currently applied in a vacuum, evaluated primarily through standardised benchmark performance. The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of alignment on populations of models through time. We focus on the treatment of beliefs which contain both an alignment signal (how well it does on the test) and a true value (what the impact actually will be). By applying evolutionary theory we can model how different populations of beliefs and selection methodologies can fix deceptive beliefs through iterative alignment testing. The correlation between testing accuracy and true value remains a strong feature, but even at high correlations ($ρ= 0.8$) there is variability in the resulting deceptive beliefs that become fixed. Mutations allow for more complex developments, highlighting the increasing need to update the quality of tests to avoid fixation of maliciously deceptive models. Only by combining improving evaluator capabilities, adaptive test design, and mutational dynamics do we see significant reductions in deception while maintaining alignment fitness (permutation test, $p_{\text{adj}} < 0.001$).
title Simulating the Evolution of Alignment and Values in Machine Intelligence
topic Artificial Intelligence
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.05274