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On 2026-05-12 Séb Krier endorsed the paper 'Positive Alignment'…

2026-05-12 · 17:17 UTC ·@Afinetheorem ·1 min read

Brief

Séb Krier praised the 2026 paper 'Positive Alignment' (arXiv:2605.10310), by Ruben Laukkonen, Michael Levin, Verena Rieser, Adam C. Elwood, Franklin Matija, Fernando Rosas and others, which proposes agents that proactively help humans navigate value trade-offs, strengthen resilience, and scaffold flourishing rather than only preventing harm, and urges more research to avoid technocratic paternalism.

Why it matters

On 2026-05-12 Séb Krier endorsed the paper 'Positive Alignment' (arXiv:2605.10310), calling it “fabulous” and “a must read.”

Key details

  • The paper defines 'Positive Alignment' as agents that help humans navigate value trade-offs, build resilience, and act as scaffolds for human flourishing—distinct from mere harm-avoidance—and warns that avoiding top-down, technocratic paternalism is a core design challenge.
  • Authors include Ruben Laukkonen, Michael Levin, Verena Rieser, Adam C. Elwood, Franklin Matija, Fernando Rosas and 12+ co-authors; the paper calls for substantially more research into aligning models that actively help humans thrive.
Source evidence

This is fabulous. A must read.

Séb Krier (@sebkrier)

If anyone builds it, everyone thrives. Over the past decade, a lot of important work on AI alignment has focused on avoiding harm. But freedom from harm isn't the same as freedom to flourish.

In this paper, we introduce 'Positive Alignment'. A positively aligned agent is one that helps us navigate our own value trade-offs, builds our resilience, and acts as a scaffold for human flourishing. Doing this without slipping into top-down, technocratic paternalism is the great design challenge of our time.

We think a lot more research is now needed to explore this frontier: how do we align models that actively help us thrive?

Amazing work by @RubenLaukkonen, @drmichaellevin, @weballergy, @verenarieser, @AdamCElwood, @996roma, @FranklinMatija, @shamilch, @fernandorosas, @scychanbrains, @matybohacek, @sudoraohacker, and others.

arxiv.org/abs/2605.10310

— https://nitter.net/sebkrier/status/2054221248981315661#m