# "Empowerment, corrigibility, etc. are simple abstractions (of a messed-up ontology)" by Steven Byrnes

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/lesswrong-curated-popular-5643401/empowerment-corrigibility-etc-are-simple-abstractions-of-a-messed-up-ontology-by-steven-byrnes
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/lesswrong-curated-popular-5643401/empowerment-corrigibility-etc-are-simple-abstractions-of-a-messed-up-ontology-by-steven-byrnes.md
Podcast: [LessWrong (Curated & Popular)](https://stenobird.com/podcast/lesswrong-curated-popular-5643401)
Published: 2026-06-01T03:15:39+00:00
Episode link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2037297/episodes/19271757-empowerment-corrigibility-etc-are-simple-abstractions-of-a-messed-up-ontology-by-steven-byrnes.mp3
Audio file: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2037297/episodes/19271757-empowerment-corrigibility-etc-are-simple-abstractions-of-a-messed-up-ontology-by-steven-byrnes.mp3
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Duration seconds: 1864

## Resource

1.1 Tl;dr Alignment is often conceptualized as AIs helping humans achieve their goals: AIs that increase people's agency and empowerment; AIs that are helpful, corrigible, and/or obedient; AIs that avoid manipulating people. But that last one—manipulation—points to a challenge for all these desiderata: a human's goals are themselves under-determined and manipulable, and it's awfully hard to pin down a principled distinction between changing people's goals in a good way (“providing counsel”...

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## Transcript

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