What Ajeya Cotra thinks about reinforcement learning

@ajeya-cotra · 30 positions · On ppll ↗

AI researcher and grantmaker, known for the biological-anchors work on when transformative AI might arrive. Writes Planned Obsolescence with Kelsey Piper.

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Only Ajeya Cotra on reinforcement learning. See everyone on reinforcement learning

1 dated position, 2026, in their own words. Our reading of what Ajeya Cotra has said — not written or endorsed by them.

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1. 1 Sept 2026

   Our readingThe whole point of reinforcement learning is to produce goal-directed beings, so refusing to describe AI agents as having motives is silly rather than rigorous.

   AI agents

   Their wordsand they're creatively pursuing goals much like very ambitious aggressive power-seeking humans creatively pursued their goals And so there are just structural analogies here that make it silly to not talk about agents as having motives and goals.

   ↗Ajeya Cotra – "This might be the clearest warning shot we ever get"youtube.com 4th of 26 in this recording