# What is AI Safety? Definition & Technical Mechanics

> **Source:** [SPIDITS AI AI Glossary](https://spidits.com/ai-glossary)  
> **Category:** Alignment & Safety  
> **Canonical Citation:** [https://spidits.com/ai-glossary/ai-safety](https://spidits.com/ai-glossary/ai-safety)

## Definition
AI Safety is a field of research focused on ensuring that artificial intelligence systems behave predictably, avoid causing harm, and remain aligned with human interests. It spans technical alignment, risk mitigation, and the study of existential risk from advanced systems.

## Architectural Mechanics & Deep Dive
AI safety is a technical research field focused on preventing artificial intelligence systems from behaving in ways that harm humans or act counter to designer intent. It spans short-term risks, such as model hallucinations, toxic outputs, and jailbreaks, as well as long-term risks like loss of control over highly capable autonomous agents. AI safety research encompasses alignment techniques (like RLHF and Constitutional AI), rigorous evaluation benchmarking, and the development of robust guardrails.

## Industry Applications & Real-World Use Cases
Policy creation, alignment training, and jailbreak defense

## Frequently Asked Questions

### What is the alignment problem in AI safety?
The difficulty of ensuring that an AI system's goals match human values, especially when the model is smarter than its creators.

### What are capability guardrails?
Restrictions placed on AI access to critical infrastructure, networks, or dangerous information to prevent misuse.

## Related Terminology
- [alignment](https://spidits.com/ai-glossary/alignment)
- [guardrails](https://spidits.com/ai-glossary/guardrails)
- [adversarial-attack](https://spidits.com/ai-glossary/adversarial-attack)

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*From the SPIDITS AI Knowledge Base (336+ terms indexed). Explore full technical definitions: [https://spidits.com/ai-glossary](https://spidits.com/ai-glossary)*