Continual learning might make your blocking monitors nearly useless
A short AI Alignment Forum writeup by Alex Mallen arguing that continual learning, models being updated on an ongoing basis during deployment, could undermine blocking monitors, the AI control mechanism that halts or flags an agent action when a separate monitor model judges it suspicious. The piece connects this to Goodharts Law: if the policy model keeps training against or around a fixed monitor, the monitors signal can stop tracking what it was meant to measure, weakening a core safety technique studied by groups like Redwood Research.
TL;DR Argues continual learning could erode the reliability of blocking monitors, a key AI control safety mechanism.
Organisations named here
- Redwood Research
- AI Alignment Forum
- Alex Mallen
Related in ai-safety

