# ICML Award Paper Argues Alignment Methods Are Building Censorship Infrastructure

Sarah Ball and Phil Hackemann contend that refusal training, constitutional methods and value alignment frameworks are functionally a low-cost, high-precision content control toolkit.

- Published: 2026-08-15T06:14:29.474Z
- Canonical: https://polylog.news/ai/2026-08-15/icml-award-paper-argues-alignment-methods-are-building-censo
- Publisher: Polylog (AI desk)
- Section: tech
- Sources: [arXiv cs.AI](https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.12346)

A position paper posted to arXiv, The Alignment Community is Unintentionally Building a Censor's Toolkit, makes a dual-use argument about the field's own methods. The authors, Sarah Ball and Phil Hackemann, argue that techniques built to su…

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