Zhigang Lu
Author directory2026
AI Alignment through a Game-theoretic Lens: A Survey
Yanan Cai | Zhongrui Zhao | Zhigang Lu | Ickjai Lee | Wei Emma Zhang | Jason Xue | Yihong Zhang | Shuchao Pang | Wei Xiang
Proceedings of the 2026 Conference on Empirical Methods in Natural Language Processing
Yanan Cai | Zhongrui Zhao | Zhigang Lu | Ickjai Lee | Wei Emma Zhang | Jason Xue | Yihong Zhang | Shuchao Pang | Wei Xiang
Proceedings of the 2026 Conference on Empirical Methods in Natural Language Processing
As large language models and increasingly capable AI agents are deployed in high-risk settings, aligning them with complex human values has become a central challenge. Existing alignment methods, while effective in improving helpfulness, harmlessness, and controllability, often struggle to capture real-world preferences that are context-dependent, non-transitive, and shaped by dynamic multi-party interactions. This survey reviews AI alignment through a game-theoretic lens. Specifically, it organizes recent progress around key game-theoretic elements and synthesizes the literature along three challenges: preference diversity, alignment priority, and temporal dynamics. This perspective clarifies where current alignment methods genuinely benefit from game-theoretic analysis, where the framework is looser, and what challenges remain in building robust, adaptive, and verifiable AI systems.