The role of subgoals in aligning AI agents

PaxMachinaMag shares an essay arguing that aligning AI agents takes more than giving them the right overall goal. It compares a soccer player’s wish to win with a subgoal like defending the left side. Building on Michael Levin’s work, the essay describes an “alignment compiler” as a system that translates higher-order goals into the behavior of individual parts, and suggests this lens could help address multi-agent alignment failures.