Artificial Intelligence and the Value Alignment Problem

Travis LaCroix
Broadview Press. Order here.

Written for an interdisciplinary audience, this book provides strikingly clear explanations of the many difficult technical and moral concepts central to discussions of ethics and AI. It serves as an introduction to the value alignment problem: ensuring AI systems align with human values. LaCroix redefines the problem as a structural one, linking AI ethics topics like bias, fairness, transparency, and opacity to the core issue of value alignment. Case studies throughout the book highlight the ethical challenges in AI development and implementation.

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Part I: Basic Concepts
  • Chapter 1 - A Brief History of Artificial Intelligence
  • Chapter 2 - Artificial Intelligence Today
  • Chapter 3 - The Value Alignment Problem
• Part II: Axes of Value Alignment
  • Chapter 4 - Objectives
  • Chapter 5 - Information
  • Chapter 6 - Principals
• Part III: Approaches to Value Alignment
  • Chapter 7 - AI Safety
  • Chapter 8 - Machine Ethics
• Part IV: Values and Value Alignment: Philosophical Questions
  • Chapter 9 - Measuring Degrees of Alignment
  • Chapter 10 - Normativity and Language
  • Chapter 11 - Values and Value-Ladenness
  • Chapter 12 - Conclusion
• Appendix
  • Superintelligence and the Control Problem

Advanced Praise

"Travis LaCroix's book on value alignment is, without a doubt, the best I have read on AI ethics. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in the ethics of artificial intelligence. The text is intellectually rigorous, and many of its ideas are genuinely novel. I found his discussion of measuring value alignment particularly insightful, along with the appendix on superintelligence and the control problem, which provides valuable depth to the topic." -- Martin Peterson, Texas A&M University

"LaCroix's Artificial Intelligence and the Value Alignment Problem offers an insightful overview and evaluation of the predicament we find ourselves in with respect to machine learning. The book doesn't shy away from engaging with the mathematical background of these challenges, but it does so in a way that's intelligible to readers with limited mathematical experience. The structural characterization of the alignment problem(s) provides a great conceptual tool for exploring the ways that values are (or fail to be) incorporated in machine learning systems. The discussions of values are also inclusive, incorporating views from Western, Eastern, and Indigenous philosophy. This book offers an up-to-date introduction to the topic at a level suitable for undergraduates while also providing a novel analytic tool for anyone already working in the area of AI ethics." -- Gillman Payette, University of Calgary

Citation:

 @book{LaCroix-2025-Value-Alignment-Book,
     author = "Travis LaCroix",
     title = "Artificial Intelligence and the Value Alignment Problem: A Philosophical Introduction",
     publisher = "Broadview Press",
     year = "2025",
 }