Artificial intelligence needs to see a psychologist about its alignment problem

Artificial intelligence (AI) influences almost every aspect of modern human life. AI has also threatened its programmers, hallucinated false or nonexistent information, precipitated mental health crises, and done other things that do not align with the goals of its human developers. In computer science, a contradiction between what is intended and how AI behaves is called the “alignment problem.” Psychologists have an opportunity to assist in mitigating the alignment problem because their knowledge of human behavior, child development, cognition, learning principles, statistics, and other areas is directly applicable to the problems that AI has evinced. The present paper argues that psychologists must become more proactive and engaged in AI development before misaligned AI becomes a threat to humanity.