---
aliases:
  en:
  - utility functions
concept_id: utility_function
preferred:
  en: utility function
  ja: 効用関数
relations:
  relations:
    prerequisite:
    - preferences
status: active
---

# utility function

A function assigning numerical utilities to outcomes, or to lotteries over outcomes, so that higher utilities represent stronger preferences under the relevant decision-theoretic assumptions; it can serve as an objective for selecting among actions but should not be conflated with a training reward signal.

## prerequisite

- [preferences](../terminology/preferences.txt)

## Documents: mentions

- [「Alignment by Default」への強い懐疑](../documents/akira.alignment-by-default-skepticism.txt)

[Corpus index](../index.txt)