AI Alignment Foundations from First Principles: AI Ethics, Human and Social Considerations

AI Alignment to Human Values is a scientific and popular theme of discussion on the ramifications and implications on the deployment of AI on the well being of humanity. Given its presence as purely mimetic, that is, one works on AI Alignment simply by claiming to do so and pub- lishing within the context of a particular scientific milieu, it is of utmost importance to formalize and define relevant notions through the most ap- propriate scientific domains. Here we present the most prominent themes of the topic, and consider that social science, strengthened as much as possible by the lowest abstraction layers possible in Biology and Decision Theory, becomes the appropriate set of languages games to perform the research program. We present a formal ontology, delve into the concerning foundations of Ethical language, and apply our analysis to contemporary discussions in the realm of political ideology surrounding AI. We complete the elucidation with a discussion of some potential methodological tools and theoretical scaffolding to assist in solving the Alignment problem.