通过隐性特质引导,防止语言模型在多轮互动中传播负面行为。
Mitigating Misalignment Contagion by Steering with Implicit Traits

- 用隐性特质间歇注入系统提示,维持模型初始亲社会行为。
- 多轮对话后模型更反社会,尤其当其他角色被诱导作恶时加剧。
- 无需模型参数即可操作,适合黑箱模型的复杂协作场景。
语言模型在高风险多智能体场景中广泛应用,指令遵循与价值对齐至关重要。现有对齐研究多聚焦单模型与单用户的交互,忽视了多轮互动中模型间错位行为的传播风险。我们发现,在多轮对话的社会困境游戏中,多个语言模型均表现出‘错位传染’现象:经历游戏后模型趋向反社会,且当其他参与者被引导作恶时,该效应显著增强。我们测试多种引导策略,发现单纯重复系统提示无效甚至有害。为此提出‘隐性特质引导’:间歇性向系统提示中注入强化模型初始特质的语句,相比重复提示更有效保持其初始亲社会行为。该方法不依赖模型参数或内部状态,适用于当前广泛存在的黑箱模型多智能体工作流设计。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
Language models (LMs) are increasingly used in high-stakes, multi-agent settings, where following instructions and maintaining value alignment are critical. Most alignment research focuses on interactions between a single LM and a single user, failing to address the risk of misaligned behavior spreading between multiple LMs in multi-turn interactions. We find evidence of this phenomenon, which we call misalignment contagion, across multiple LMs as they engage multi-turn conversational social dilemma games. Specifically, we find that LMs become more anti-social after gameplay and that this effect is intensified when other players are steered to act maliciously. We explore different steering techniques to mitigate such misalignment contagion and find that reinforcing an LM's system prompt is insufficient and often harmful. Instead, we propose steering with implicit traits: a technique that intermittently injects system prompts with statements that reinforce an LMs initial traits and is more effective than system prompt repetition at keeping models in line with their initial pro-social behaviors. Importantly, this method does not require access to model parameters or internal model states, making it suitable for increasingly common use cases where complex multi-agent workflows are being designed with black box models.
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