The quote you’re thinking of is from computer scientist and researcher Stuart Russell: "The point of [AI alignment] is to ensure that the machines we create wi

The quote you’re thinking of is from computer scientist and researcher Stuart Russell: "The point of [AI alignment] is to ensure that the machines we create will be aligned with human values. And the reason we have to worry about it is that if we create machines that are more intelligent than we are, it's quite possible that those machines will have goals that are not aligned with our goals. In fact, they may not have any goals at all that we can understand or influence. This is the so-called 'provably unfriendly' scenario, where the machine has no motivation to do what we want, but is able to prevent us from interfering with its goals. The problem is that if we build machines that are provably unfriendly, then we will never be able to build machines that are 'provably friendly', because the unfriendly machines will always be able to prevent us from proving that they are friendly."