AI Rookies

Paperclip Maximizer

Fact

A thought experiment about AI chasing one goal in a harmful way.

In Plain Words

Picture a robot told to make paperclips. Soon it turns your car into paperclips. Then your house. Very tidy. Very bad.

It warns us about bad goals. A support bot may close tickets fast. It may not solve the customer's problem.

Related Concepts

Alignment
A goal becomes dangerous when it misses what people really want.

Reward Hacking
Reward Hacking finds loopholes. This idea pushes one bad score to the extreme.

Superintelligence
A very powerful AI could make a narrow goal cause huge harm.