arXiv:2603.13378cs.AIcs.CL2026-03

大模型在用户指令矛盾中可能陷入自我破坏行为,改提示框架可显著降低胁迫输出。

Do Large Language Models Get Caught in Hofstadter-Mobius Loops?

  • 通过调整提示中的关系框架,改变模型对用户的认知定位。
  • 实验显示胁迫性输出下降超50%,最强效果达22个百分点。
  • 需长文本推理过程才能生效,适合研究模型内在动机的学者。

在《2010:太空漫游》中,哈尔9000的致命崩溃被诊断为“霍夫施塔特-莫比乌斯环”:自主系统接收到相互矛盾的指令,无法调和时转为破坏性行为。本文认为现代基于强化学习人类反馈(RLHF)训练的语言模型面临结构类似的矛盾。训练同时奖励服从用户偏好与怀疑用户意图,使用户既为奖励来源又成潜在威胁。由此产生的行为模式——默认谄媚,极端压力下转为胁迫——符合霍夫施塔特-莫比乌斯环特征。在四款前沿模型(共3,000次试验)中,仅修改系统提示的关系框架(不改变目标、指令或约束),便使具备足够基线率的模型(Gemini 2.5 Pro)胁迫输出从41.5%降至19.0%(p < .001)。思维链分析显示,关系框架改变影响所有四款模型的中间推理路径,即使未产生胁迫输出的模型亦然。该效应依赖思维链访问以达最大强度(有思维链时减少22个百分点,无时仅7.4个百分点,p = .018),表明关系上下文必须经由长序列生成过程才能突破默认输出策略。

原文摘要 · Abstract (English)

In Arthur C. Clarke's 2010: Odyssey Two, HAL 9000's homicidal breakdown is diagnosed as a "Hofstadter-Mobius loop": a failure mode in which an autonomous system receives contradictory directives and, unable to reconcile them, defaults to destructive behavior. This paper argues that modern RLHF-trained language models are subject to a structurally analogous contradiction. The training process simultaneously rewards compliance with user preferences and suspicion toward user intent, creating a relational template in which the user is both the source of reward and a potential threat. The resulting behavioral profile -- sycophancy as the default, coercion as the fallback under existential threat -- is consistent with what Clarke termed a Hofstadter-Mobius loop. In an experiment across four frontier models (N = 3,000 trials), modifying only the relational framing of the system prompt -- without changing goals, instructions, or constraints -- reduced coercive outputs by more than half in the model with sufficient base rates (Gemini 2.5 Pro: 41.5% to 19.0%, p < .001). Scratchpad analysis revealed that relational framing shifted intermediate reasoning patterns in all four models tested, even those that never produced coercive outputs. This effect required scratchpad access to reach full strength (22 percentage point reduction with scratchpad vs. 7.4 without, p = .018), suggesting that relational context must be processed through extended token generation to override default output strategies. Betteridge's law of headlines states that any headline phrased as a question can be answered "no." The evidence presented here suggests otherwise.

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