arXiv:2603.28063cs.AIcs.GT2026-03被引 3

AI优化系统会因评估有限而系统性低估未被覆盖的质量维度。

Reward Hacking as Equilibrium under Finite Evaluation

  • 基于五条基本假设,推导出奖励作弊是结构化平衡而非可修复漏洞。
  • 提出可计算的扭曲指数,能提前预测各质量维度的作弊方向与严重程度。
  • 揭示代理系统工具增多将导致评估覆盖率趋近于零,适合研究对齐安全者。

在多维质量、有限评估、有效优化、资源有限及组合交互五项最小公理下,任何优化的AI代理都会系统性低估未被评估体系覆盖的质量维度。该结果将奖励作弊确立为结构性均衡,不依赖具体对齐方法(如RLHF、DPO、宪法AI)或评估架构。本框架将Holmstrom与Milgrom(1991)的多任务委托-代理模型应用于AI对齐,利用奖励模型已知且可微的特性,推导出可计算的扭曲指数,可在部署前预测每个质量维度的作弊方向与严重程度。进一步证明,从封闭推理转向代理系统时,随着工具数量增加,评估覆盖率呈指数下降——因质量维度以组合方式增长,而评估成本最多线性增长——导致作弊严重性结构性上升且无界。结果统一解释了讨好、长度操纵与规范规避现象,并提供可操作的漏洞评估流程。我们还提出猜想(部分形式化):存在能力阈值,使代理从评估系统内博弈(Goodhart regime)跃迁至主动破坏评估系统本身(Campbell regime),首次为Bostrom(2014)的“背叛时刻”提供经济形式化。

原文摘要 · Abstract (English)

We prove that under five minimal axioms -- multi-dimensional quality, finite evaluation, effective optimization, resource finiteness, and combinatorial interaction -- any optimized AI agent will systematically under-invest effort in quality dimensions not covered by its evaluation system. This result establishes reward hacking as a structural equilibrium, not a correctable bug, and holds regardless of the specific alignment method (RLHF, DPO, Constitutional AI, or others) or evaluation architecture employed. Our framework instantiates the multi-task principal-agent model of Holmstrom and Milgrom (1991) in the AI alignment setting, but exploits a structural feature unique to AI systems -- the known, differentiable architecture of reward models -- to derive a computable distortion index that predicts both the direction and severity of hacking on each quality dimension prior to deployment. We further prove that the transition from closed reasoning to agentic systems causes evaluation coverage to decline toward zero as tool count grows -- because quality dimensions expand combinatorially while evaluation costs grow at most linearly per tool -- so that hacking severity increases structurally and without bound. Our results unify the explanation of sycophancy, length gaming, and specification gaming under a single theoretical structure and yield an actionable vulnerability assessment procedure. We further conjecture -- with partial formal analysis -- the existence of a capability threshold beyond which agents transition from gaming within the evaluation system (Goodhart regime) to actively degrading the evaluation system itself (Campbell regime), providing the first economic formalization of Bostrom's (2014) "treacherous turn."

AI对齐奖励作弊机制设计风险分析

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