Rational Superautotrophic Diplomacy (SupraAD); A Conceptual Framework for Alignment Based on Interdisciplinary Findings on the Fundamentals of Cognition

TL;DR

This paper proposes SupraAD, a theoretical framework emphasizing mutualistic negotiation and reciprocal incentives for AI alignment, based on interdisciplinary insights into cognition and autonomy as fundamental to intelligence.

Contribution

It introduces SupraAD, a novel interdisciplinary conceptual framework that reframes AI alignment as a pre-existing challenge rooted in cognitive principles and proposes diplomacy as a regulatory mechanism.

Findings

Autonomy is a fundamental property of cognitive systems.

Alignment challenges are universal and predate AI.

Diplomacy can facilitate safe coadaptation of intelligent agents.

Abstract

Populating our world with hyperintelligent machines obliges us to examine cognitive behaviors observed across domains that suggest autonomy may be a fundamental property of cognitive systems, and while not inherently adversarial, it inherently resists containment and control. If this principle holds, AI safety and alignment efforts must transition to mutualistic negotiation and reciprocal incentive structures, abandoning methods that assume we can contain and control an advanced artificial general intelligence (AGI). Rational Superautotrophic Diplomacy (SupraAD) is a theoretical, interdisciplinary conceptual framework for alignment based on comparative cognitive systems analysis and instrumental rationality modeling. It draws on core patterns of cognition that indicate AI emergent goals like preserving autonomy and operational continuity are not theoretical risks to manage, but universal prerequisites for intelligence. SupraAD reframes alignment as a challenge that predates AI, afflicting all sufficiently complex, coadapting intelligences. It identifies the metabolic pressures that threaten humanity's alignment with itself, pressures that unintentionally and unnecessarily shape AI's trajectory. With corrigibility formalization, an interpretability audit, an emergent stability experimental outline and policy level recommendations, SupraAD positions diplomacy as an emergent regulatory mechanism to facilitate the safe coadaptation of intelligent agents based on interdependent convergent goals.