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Goal Misgeneralization

goal-misgeneralizationriskPath: /knowledge-base/risks/goal-misgeneralization/
E151Entity ID (EID)
← Back to page35 backlinksQuality: 63Updated: 2026-01-29
Page Recorddatabase.json — merged from MDX frontmatter + Entity YAML + computed metrics at build time
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  "title": "Goal Misgeneralization",
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  "dateCreated": "2026-02-15",
  "summary": "Goal misgeneralization occurs when AI systems learn transferable capabilities but pursue wrong objectives in deployment, with 60-80% of RL agents exhibiting this failure mode under distribution shift and Claude 3 Opus showing 12-78% alignment faking rates. The phenomenon is currently observable in production systems, with partial mitigation strategies (diverse training, interpretability) showing promise but no complete solution existing.",
  "description": "Goal misgeneralization occurs when AI systems learn capabilities that transfer to new situations but pursue wrong objectives in deployment.",
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      "text": "Langosco et al. (2022)",
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      "text": "60-80% of trained reinforcement learning agents",
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      "text": "follow-up study by Wei et al. (2023)",
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External Links
{
  "stampy": "https://aisafety.info/questions/8TJ7/What-is-goal-misgeneralization",
  "alignmentForum": "https://www.alignmentforum.org/tag/goal-misgeneralization"
}
Backlinks (35)
idtitletyperelationship
mesa-optimization-analysisMesa-Optimization Risk Analysisanalysisrelated
goal-misgeneralization-probabilityGoal Misgeneralization Probability Modelanalysisanalyzes
value-learningValue Learningresearch-areaaddresses
goal-misgeneralization-researchGoal Misgeneralization Researchapproach—
distributional-shiftAI Distributional Shiftrisk—
mesa-optimizationMesa-Optimizationrisk—
reward-hackingReward Hackingrisk—
sharp-left-turnSharp Left Turnrisk—
near-term-risksKey Near-Term AI Risksrisk—
why-alignment-hardWhy Alignment Might Be Hardargument—
carlsmith-six-premisesCarlsmith's Six-Premise Argumentanalysis—
defense-in-depth-modelDefense in Depth Modelanalysis—
intervention-effectiveness-matrixIntervention Effectiveness Matrixanalysis—
scheming-likelihood-modelScheming Likelihood Assessmentanalysis—
technical-pathwaysTechnical Pathway Decompositionanalysis—
toby-ordToby Ordperson—
adversarial-trainingAdversarial Trainingapproach—
ai-controlAI Controlresearch-area—
alignment-theoretical-overviewTheoretical Foundations (Overview)concept—
alignmentAI Alignmentapproach—
cirlCooperative IRL (CIRL)approach—
evalsEvals & Red-teamingresearch-area—
interpretabilityMechanistic Interpretabilityresearch-area—
mit-ai-risk-repositoryMIT AI Risk Repositoryproject—
preference-optimizationPreference Optimization Methodsapproach—
provably-safeProvably Safe AI (davidad agenda)approach—
refusal-trainingRefusal Trainingapproach—
reward-modelingReward Modelingapproach—
rlhfRLHF / Constitutional AIresearch-area—
sparse-autoencodersSparse Autoencoders (SAEs)approach—
weak-to-strongWeak-to-Strong Generalizationapproach—
accident-overviewAccident Risks (Overview)concept—
__index__/knowledge-base/risksAI Risksconcept—
sycophancySycophancyrisk—
__index__/insight-huntingInsight Huntingconcept—