alignment aristocracy /uh-LINE-ment air-uh-STAH-kruh-see/ noun The belief that only a small class of frontier AI labs possesses the technical judgment, institutional maturity, or moral legitimacy required to develop recursively self-improving artificial intelligence. Especially: the view that advanced AI capabilities are too dangerous to be widely distributed, openly developed, or pursued by less established competitors, while continued development by incumbent frontier labs is treated as uniquely responsible or justified. See also: safety paternalism, recursive exceptionalism, moral monopoly, safety cartel. “Alignment aristocracy begins when ‘no one can be trusted with this technology’ quietly becomes ‘no one but us.’”