Alignment Isn’t Free: When Safety Objectives Start Competing
Customer support is where alignment theories go to become invoices. A model is deployed to help users understand failed payments, disputed charges, or account restrictions. Product wants it to be useful. Legal wants it to avoid regulated advice. Trust and safety wants it to refuse suspicious requests. Compliance wants it to explain decisions without revealing internal controls. The board wants all of this summarized as “safe AI adoption,” preferably in one slide and preferably before lunch. ...