In more detail
Alignment is the effort to make AI genuinely pursue what people actually want — not merely appear obedient. The classic worry is the genie problem: a system that follows your words while missing your intent, doing exactly what you said and nothing like what you meant.
It matters more as AI gains independence. A chatbot misreading intent wastes a few minutes; an agentic system with real-world powers misreading intent could do real damage. Guardrails patch behavior from the outside; alignment aims deeper — at shaping what the system is actually trying to do.
Goes with