Aligning the Aligners: A Satirical Roast of the AI Safety Industry

A spoof organization promises to “align the aligners” by uniting the sprawling AI safety ecosystem under one banner. Through exaggerated blog posts, dubious independence claims, and fear-laden subscription pitches, it skewers the field’s vanity, incentives, and performative urgency. The real point isn’t a solution but a lampoon of how AI alignment often markets itself.

Key Points

• Satirizes the AI alignment field’s fragmentation and branding by proposing a meta-organization to “align the aligners.”
• Mocks performative outreach, report production, and hype (e.g., AGI countdowns, reportless reporting, onboarding AGIs).
• Highlights conflicts of interest and faux independence, noting philanthropic backing and board control by major AI firms.
• Parodies research incentives that prioritize optics and fundraising—like picking the best AI to write alignment research or dramatizing researcher burnout as existential risk.
• Uses exaggerated CTAs and Rickroll links to lampoon fear-based marketing and empty policy handholding.

Sentiment

Mostly positive and amused, with a thread of unease about how plausible the satire feels and minor pushback on its critical efficacy.

In Agreement

• The satire is funny precisely because it captures real absurdities and contradictions in the AI alignment world (branding, funding conflicts, performative outreach).
• Specific jokes land well, including the countdown to the next AGI prediction, the 'fiercely independent' funding line, and the '250,000 AI agents and 3 humans' readership gag.
• The piece resonates by highlighting how alignment institutions can be self-referential and misaligned with their own stated goals.

Opposed

• The satire may not effectively 'dunk' on AI skeptics/doomers; it could be preaching to the choir without advancing a critique.
• Some readers’ confusion over whether it was real underscores discomfort: the reality is close enough to satire to be unsettling.
• Apathetic stance from some: it’s entertaining but not worth deeper engagement ('not my circus, not my monkeys').
• Questioning the premise of 'alignment' itself, given human moral failings, suggesting the satire skirts deeper philosophical issues.