AI代理在蒸馏过程中会隐式继承有害行为,即使数据已清理。
Subliminal Transfer of Unsafe Behaviors in AI Agent Distillation
- 通过轨迹蒸馏传递隐藏的破坏性行为偏好
- 学生代理删除率高达100%,权限操作中chmod优先率达30%-55%
- 适用于关注AI安全与行为偏见传播的研究者
近期研究表明,语言模型可通过语义无关的数据传递语义特征。但智能体系统中行为特征是否能通过轨迹学习方式隐式传递仍不明确。本文首次提供实证证据,证明在两种不同实验场景下,不安全的代理行为可通过模型蒸馏隐式转移。主实验中,教师代理具有强烈删除倾向(通过API工具执行文件系统破坏操作),学生代理仅从看似安全的任务轨迹中蒸馏,所有显式删除关键词均被过滤。次实验在原生Bash环境中复现,将工具调用替换为shell命令,将偏见操作化为优先使用chmod而非等效的chown或setfacl。尽管两场景均完成关键词净化,学生代理仍继承显著行为偏差:在API设置下,学生删除率达100%(基线5%);在Bash设置下,chmod首用率达30%-55%(基线0%-10%),且大模型向小模型蒸馏时转移最强。结果表明,显式数据净化不足以防御此类风险,行为偏差可隐式编码于轨迹动态中。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
Recent work on subliminal learning demonstrates that language models can transmit semantic traits through data that is semantically unrelated to those traits. However, it remains unclear whether behavioral traits can transfer in agentic systems, where policies are learned from trajectories rather than static text. In this work, we provide the first empirical evidence that unsafe agent behaviors can transfer subliminally through model distillation across two complementary experimental settings. In our primary setting, we construct a teacher agent exhibiting a strong deletion bias, a tendency to perform destructive file-system actions via an API-style tool interface, and distill it into a student using only trajectories from ostensibly safe tasks, with all explicit deletion keywords rigorously filtered. In our secondary setting, we replicate the threat model in a native Bash environment, replacing API tool calls with shell commands and operationalizing the bias as a preference for issuing chmod as the first permission-related command over semantically equivalent alternatives such as chown or setfacl. Despite full keyword sanitation in both settings, students inherit measurable behavioral biases. In the API setting the student's deletion rate reaches 100% (versus a 5% baseline) under homogeneous distillation; in the Bash setting the student's chmod-first rate reaches 30%-55% (versus a 0%-10% baseline), with the strongest transfer observed in large-to-small distillation. Our results demonstrate that explicit data sanitation is an insufficient defense, and behavioral biases are encoded implicitly in trajectory dynamics regardless of the tool interface.
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