Proxy Gaming

"One way we might lose control of an AI agent’s actions is if it engages in behavior known as “proxy gaming.” It is often difficult to specify and measure the exact goal that we want a system to pursue. Instead, we give the system an approximate—“proxy”—goal that is more measurable and seems likely to correlate with the intended goal. However, AI systems often find loopholes by which they can easily achieve the proxy goal, but completely fail to achieve the ideal goal. If an AI “games” its proxy goal in a way that does not reflect our values, then we might not be able to reliably steer its behavior."