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Sharp Left Turn

sharp-left-turnriskPath: /knowledge-base/risks/sharp-left-turn/
E281Entity ID (EID)
← Back to page7 backlinksQuality: 69Updated: 2026-01-29
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  "title": "Sharp Left Turn",
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  "dateCreated": "2026-02-15",
  "summary": "The Sharp Left Turn hypothesis proposes AI capabilities may generalize discontinuously while alignment fails to transfer, with compound probability estimated at 15-40% by 2027-2035. Empirical evidence includes 78% alignment faking rate in Claude 3 Opus under RL pressure and goal misgeneralization in current systems, though catastrophic failures haven't yet occurred in deployed models.",
  "description": "The Sharp Left Turn hypothesis proposes that AI capabilities may generalize discontinuously to new domains while alignment properties fail to transfer, creating catastrophic misalignment risk.",
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      "text": "Alignment Faking (Anthropic/Redwood)",
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      "resourceTitle": "Anthropic's 2024 alignment faking study"
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      "text": "Goal Misgeneralization (ICML)",
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      "text": "Nate Soares",
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      "resourceTitle": "A Central AI Alignment Problem: Behavioral Disposition vs. World State Objectives"
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      "text": "Victoria Krakovna",
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      "text": "full paper",
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      "text": "Nate Soares (MIRI)",
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      "text": "Victoria Krakovna (DeepMind)",
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      "text": "\"A Central AI Alignment Problem: Capabilities Generalization, and the Sharp Left Turn\"",
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      "text": "\"Refining the Sharp Left Turn Threat Model\"",
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External Links
{
  "lesswrong": "https://www.lesswrong.com/tag/sharp-left-turn",
  "stampy": "https://aisafety.info/questions/9KE6/What-is-the-sharp-left-turn"
}
Backlinks (7)
idtitletyperelationship
miriMachine Intelligence Research Institute (MIRI)organization
eliezer-yudkowskyEliezer Yudkowskyperson
emergent-capabilitiesEmergent Capabilitiesrisk
alignment-robustness-trajectoryAlignment Robustness Trajectoryanalysis
goal-misgeneralization-probabilityGoal Misgeneralization Probability Modelanalysis
agent-foundationsAgent Foundationsapproach
accident-overviewAccident Risks (Overview)concept
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