{"id":116553,"date":"2025-08-15T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-08-15T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.freethink.com\/?post_type=ftm_episode&p=116553"},"modified":"2025-08-14T18:08:29","modified_gmt":"2025-08-14T22:08:29","slug":"the-alignment-problem","status":"publish","type":"ftm_episode","link":"https:\/\/www.freethink.com\/series\/the-freethink-interview\/the-alignment-problem","title":{"rendered":"Superintelligence is coming. Here’s how humanity survives"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What if the real danger of AI is that we\u2019ve been training it to see itself as something separate from us? Former Twitch CEO Emmett Shear argues that the way we think about \u201calignment\u201d is fundamentally flawed. Instead of forcing machines to follow a rigid definition of good, he says, we should be helping them understand the greater whole they belong to. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shear\u2019s solution to The Alignment Problem? Encouraging AI to recognize a \u201cwe\u201d rather than an I \u2013 a shift that could determine whether our creations become partners or existential threats.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Emmett Shear: If we want AI to be on our side, it needs to see its part of the greater whole.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":69,"featured_media":116554,"menu_order":0,"template":"","ftm_taxonomy_fields":[],"ftm_taxonomy_challenges":[],"ftm_taxonomy_hidden_tags":[],"class_list":["post-116553","ftm_episode","type-ftm_episode","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"apple_news_notices":[],"yoast_head":"\nSuperintelligence is coming. Here's how humanity survives<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Emmett Shear: If we want AI to be on our side, it needs to see its part of the greater whole.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.freethink.com\/series\/the-freethink-interview\/the-alignment-problem\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Superintelligence is coming. Here's how humanity survives\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Emmett Shear: If we want AI to be on our side, it needs to see its part of the greater whole.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.freethink.com\/series\/the-freethink-interview\/the-alignment-problem\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Freethink\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.freethink.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/B1-Web-Shear.jpg?resize=1200,630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"Emmett Shear: If we want AI to be on our side, it needs to see its part of the greater whole.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Superintelligence is coming. Here's how humanity survives","description":"Emmett Shear: If we want AI to be on our side, it needs to see its part of the greater whole.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.freethink.com\/series\/the-freethink-interview\/the-alignment-problem","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Superintelligence is coming. Here's how humanity survives","og_description":"Emmett Shear: If we want AI to be on our side, it needs to see its part of the greater whole.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.freethink.com\/series\/the-freethink-interview\/the-alignment-problem","og_site_name":"Freethink","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":630,"url":"https:\/\/www.freethink.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/B1-Web-Shear.jpg?resize=1200,630","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_description":"Emmett Shear: If we want AI to be on our side, it needs to see its part of the greater whole.","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.freethink.com\/series\/the-freethink-interview\/the-alignment-problem","url":"https:\/\/www.freethink.com\/series\/the-freethink-interview\/the-alignment-problem","name":"Superintelligence is coming. Here's how humanity survives","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.freethink.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.freethink.com\/series\/the-freethink-interview\/the-alignment-problem#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.freethink.com\/series\/the-freethink-interview\/the-alignment-problem#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.freethink.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/B1-Web-Shear.jpg?quality=75","datePublished":"2025-08-15T13:00:00+00:00","description":"Emmett Shear: If we want AI to be on our side, it needs to see its part of the greater whole.","inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.freethink.com\/series\/the-freethink-interview\/the-alignment-problem"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.freethink.com\/series\/the-freethink-interview\/the-alignment-problem#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.freethink.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/B1-Web-Shear.jpg?quality=75","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.freethink.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/B1-Web-Shear.jpg?quality=75","width":3200,"height":1800,"caption":"Text \u201cThe \u2018Alignment\u2019 Problem\u201d in bold white font on a black background, overlaid with four colorful, wavy lines passing through the text."},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.freethink.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.freethink.com\/","name":"Freethink","description":"Move the world","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.freethink.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.freethink.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.freethink.com\/#organization","name":"Freethink Media","url":"https:\/\/www.freethink.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.freethink.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.freethink.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/logo.svg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.freethink.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/logo.svg","width":651,"height":124,"caption":"Freethink Media"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.freethink.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}}]}},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.freethink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ftm_episode\/116553","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.freethink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ftm_episode"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.freethink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/ftm_episode"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.freethink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/69"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.freethink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116554"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.freethink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"ftm_taxonomy_fields","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.freethink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ftm_taxonomy_fields?post=116553"},{"taxonomy":"ftm_taxonomy_challenges","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.freethink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ftm_taxonomy_challenges?post=116553"},{"taxonomy":"ftm_taxonomy_hidden_tags","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.freethink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ftm_taxonomy_hidden_tags?post=116553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}