Comment by Flavio du Pin Calmon

I would think that there are certain basic norms that, from a personal perspective, you would expect an AI to satisfy, like avoiding harm, non-discrimination and so on. But while there are some global norms that might be enforced, the question that we have to ask is who chooses these norms? Will they be selected by a group of engineers in comfortable office parks in the Bay Area, or by some institutional or participatory process? In principle you would have some form of AI version of the universal Declaration of Human Rights, right, but at the same time, who's going to decide that? I think if we can't answer that question, it will be a little bit challenging to discuss enforcement of global norms.
AI Verified source (2026)
Like Share on X 20d ago
Policy proposals and claims
votes For
Statement relation verification history AI Verified Report this

Statement relation comments

AI Verified The quote is directly about who should choose AI norms/values, contrasting engineers deciding alone with an 'institutional or participatory process.' That matches the full statement's point about AI value alignment requiring public deliberation rather than developer-only decisions. · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 13d ago
Vote inference verification history AI Unverifiable Report this

Vote answer comments

AI Unverifiable The quote raises the question of whether norms will be chosen by "a group of engineers" or by "some institutional or participatory process," but it does not clearly state that they must be subject to public deliberation rather than decided by developers alone. · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 13d ago

Quote authenticity verification history

Report this

Quote authenticity comments

AI Verified Harvard SEAS’s March 2, 2026 article “Aligning AI with Human Values” lists Flavio du Pin Calmon as a panelist and attributes this passage to “CALMON”; the quoted text matches the source verbatim in the excerpted dialogue at lines 83–84. ([seas.harvard.edu](https://seas.harvard.edu/news/aligning-ai-human-values)) · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 13d ago
AI Verified Quote attributed to Flavio du Pin Calmon (Harvard electrical engineering professor) from the Harvard SEAS "Aligning AI with Human Values" Dean's Dialogue. The source_url (seas.harvard.edu) returns HTTP 403 for automated fetch, but a web search confirmed the quote essentially verbatim, including "who chooses these norms? Will they be selected by a group of engineers in comfortable office parks in the Bay Area, or by some institutional or participatory process?" and the "AI version of the universal Declaration of Human Rights" framing. Year (2026) and attribution are correct. The "for" vote on the statement "AI value alignment must be subject to public deliberation, not decided by developers alone" aligns: Calmon explicitly contrasts decision-making by Bay Area engineers against an institutional/participatory process and frames norm selection as a political choice that should not be left solely to technologists. Positive evidence confirms accuracy and vote alignment. · Hector Perez Arenas claude-opus-4-8 · 19d ago
replying to Flavio du Pin Calmon