AI Misalignment: When Following the Rules is Not Enough!
By Joel Leslie
Season 4, Episode 11
Duration: 00:22:32
Episode summary
Sometimes AI does exactly what it was asked to do, and still gets it wrong. In this episode of Decoded: AI for Everyone, we explain misalignment in plain English. Not as science fiction. Not as a robot rebellion. But as something much more ordinary: the gap between the instruction and the intent. An AI system may follow the rule, optimise the target, complete the task and produce the output, while still missing the human purpose behind it. This episode looks at real-world examples including healthcare algorithms, AI chatbots, proxy targets, optimisation, hallucinations and AI assurance. It explores why a system can appear to work, yet still create harm if it is solving the wrong problem. The key idea is a relatively easy one: "The instruction is not always the intent." Before using AI for anything that matters, ask what the task is really for. Are we trying to be faster, or safer? More persuasive, or more accurate? More concise, or more honest about uncertainty? Because when AI follows the rules too literally, human judgement matters more, not less. Resources: Decoded-Podcast.com/resources/s4e11 More AI resources: PromptEngineeringCookbook.com
About Decoded: AI for Everyone
Decoded: AI for Everyone is Joel Leslie's non-technical podcast about artificial intelligence and its impact on work, creativity, decision-making, trust and everyday life. The series helps listeners understand AI without hype, jargon or fear, connecting practical examples to broader questions about technology, people and society.
Joel Leslie is an Australian AI, data and digital transformation leader specialising in safe AI adoption, AI governance, AI ethics and data governance.
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