LLM Alignment should go beyond Harmlessness–Helpfulness and incorporate Human Agency

Large Language Models are transforming communication, research, and decision-making, but misalignment – when models diverge from human values, safety requirements, or user intent – poses serious risks. In this position paper, we argue that many alignment failures stem from operational choices in training and deployment. We posit that alignment should shift from static, post-training constraints toward dynamic, participatory approaches that safeguard pluralism, autonomy, and human flourishing. We outline forward-looking directions, including pluralistic evaluation, transparency, and the Flourishing–Justice–Autonomy (FJA) framework, and present a roadmap for advancing alignment research and practice.

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Publication Details

Journal
Cognitive Computation
Published
2026-03-13
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s12559-026-10568-9
Primary Topic
Business Law and Ethics
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

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article

LLM Alignment should go beyond Harmlessness–Helpfulness and incorporate Human Agency

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Cognitive Computation
Business Law and Ethics
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LLM Alignment should go beyond Harmlessness–Helpfulness and incorporate Human Agency

Preslav Nakov, Mark Dras, Soujanya Poria, Tanmoy Chakraborty, Usman Naseem, Kai-Wei Chang, Nanyun Peng
article en

Abstract

Large Language Models are transforming communication, research, and decision-making, but misalignment – when models diverge from human values, safety requirements, or user intent – poses serious risks. In this position paper, we argue that many alignment failures stem from operational choices in training and deployment. We posit that alignment should shift from static, post-training constraints toward dynamic, participatory approaches that safeguard pluralism, autonomy, and human flourishing. We outline forward-looking directions, including pluralistic evaluation, transparency, and the Flourishing–Justice–Autonomy (FJA) framework, and present a roadmap for advancing alignment research and practice.

Cognitive ComputationVol. 18(1)
University of California, Los Angeles (US), Nanyang Technological University (SG), Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (AE), Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IN), Macquarie University (AU)
DeepMind, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
Reduced inequalities
Openalex Percentile: Top 25%
Business Law and Ethics
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