Part 7/12:
Building a Cognitive Architecture
Achieving safe and truly aligned AI requires more than just better prompts or surface-level training. The speaker proposes copious layers of cognitive architecture—complex, layered systems capable of meta-cognition, self-critique, and long-term reasoning.
They illustrate this concept with a diagram of their open-source project, Raven, which integrates internal red-teaming: AI models generating responses, then critiquing or revising themselves based on embedded principles. This process echoes human cognition, where reasoning involves multiple passes, internal checks, and balancing conflicting motivations.
The core idea is to create AI that can think about what it is doing—an essential step toward avoiding unpredictable, harmful behaviors.