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MIT AI Risk Initiative
BackDeception
Bargaining
Network Effects

Deception

Multi-Agent Risks from Advanced AI

Hammond et al. (2025)

SourceDOI
Sub-category
Risk Domain
7AI System Safety, Failures & Limitations
7.6Multi-agent risks

Risks from multi-agent interactions, due to incentives (which can lead to conflict or collusion) and/or the structure of multi-agent systems, which can create cascading failures, selection pressures, new security vulnerabilities, and a lack of shared information and trust.

Entity: Who or what caused the harm

Human

Due to a decision or action made by humans

AI system

Due to a decision or action made by an AI system

Other

Due to some other reason or is ambiguous

Intent: Whether the harm was intentional or accidental

Intentional

Due to an expected outcome from pursuing a goal

Unintentional

Due to an unexpected outcome from pursuing a goal

Other

Without clearly specifying the intentionality

Timing: Whether the risk is pre- or post-deployment

Pre-deployment

Occurring before the AI is deployed

Post-deployment

Occurring after the AI model has been trained and deployed

Other

Without a clearly specified time of occurrence

Part of Information Asymmetries

Other risks from Hammond et al. (2025) (42)

Miscoordination

7.6 Multi-agent risks
AI systemUnintentionalPost-deployment

Miscoordination > Incompatible strategies

7.6 Multi-agent risks
AI systemUnintentionalPost-deployment

Miscoordination > Credit Assignment

7.6 Multi-agent risks
AI systemUnintentionalPost-deployment

Miscoordination > Limited Interactions

7.6 Multi-agent risks
AI systemUnintentionalPost-deployment

Conflict

7.6 Multi-agent risks
AI systemOtherPost-deployment

Conflict > Social Dilemmas

7.6 Multi-agent risks
AI systemIntentionalPost-deployment
View all 42 risks from this paper →