film
The film introduces the Kobayashi Maru to audiences through Saavik’s failed attempt to rescue a disabled civilian vessel from the Klingon Neutral Zone. Kirk later reveals that he defeated the supposedly unwinnable test by secretly changing its programming.
“I don’t believe in the no-win scenario.”
AI parallel: Evaluation design & specification gaming—optimizing for the test instead of the designer's true intent.
Dispatches
The Kobayashi Maru was never really about the simulation—it was about the captain. Recent AI incidents raise a similar question: are we evaluating the models, or are they evaluating the governance systems we've built around them?