The Alignment Problem: Machine Learning and Human Values is a 2020 non-fiction book by the American writer Brian Christian.

He tells the story of Julia Angwin, a journalist whose ProPublica investigation of the COMPAS algorithm, a tool for predicting recidivism among criminal defendants, led to widespread criticism of its accuracy and bias towards certain demographics.

One of AI's main alignment challenges is its black box nature (inputs and outputs are identifiable but the transformation process in between is undetermined).

He also highlights the importance of curiosity, in which reinforcement learners are intrinsically motivated to explore their environment, rather than exclusively seeking the external reward.

"[4] Writing for Nature, Virginia Dignum gave the book a positive review, favorably comparing it to Kate Crawford's Atlas of AI.