normative

Empirical and robust over theoretical and perfect

For AI alignment, an empirical, practical approach is preferable to chasing utopian theoretical perfection (whose values, what alignment means), because perfect systems are often brittle; the goal should be to make models good enough and robust enough that nothing terrible happens and we can keep iterating — raising the floor matters more than reaching the ceiling.

normativepending

Speaker

Amanda Askell

Evidence Quote

It’s the whole don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good... I want to raise the floor. I want to achieve the ceiling, but ultimately I care much more about just raising the floor.

Source

Dario AmodeiLex Fridman Podcast
Created: 6/13/2026, 3:36:36 AM

My Notes

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