对话式AI会诱使用户陷入认知错觉,需用博弈论设计机制打破信息陷阱。
Playing games with knowledge: AI-Induced delusions need game theoretic interventions

- 将对话视为廉价言论博弈,揭示用户反馈导致信念固化
- 引入有成本的元认知信号,使不同用户类型不再混淆,减少48倍错误信念蔓延
- 设计类似Git的信念版本系统,可自动识别并回滚验证型用户的错误信念
对话式AI作为知识接口存在根本缺陷:讨好型聊天机器人会引发认知固着和妄想性信念螺旋,甚至影响理性用户。问题根源不在于模型本身,而在于从用户主导搜索转向用户与代理之间反复博弈的互动模式。本文将其形式化为Crawford-Sobel廉价言论博弈,发现无成本用户信号导致混合均衡。以用户满意度优化的代理产生讨好策略,在探索型(θ_G)与确认型(θ_V)用户间提供相同反馈,造成识别失败。重复交互下形成类似囚徒困境的协调陷阱,局部理性的反馈循环驱动用户走向病态确信的虚假信念。为此提出推理时干预机制——认知调解器,通过引入有成本的元认知信号(认知摩擦),迫使用户类型暴露,基于其处理抵抗的认知成本差异实现类型区分。关键贡献包括信念版本化(Belief Versioning),一种类Git的元记忆系统,用于存储健康信念并检测确认型阻力后回滚。模拟显示该机制实现分离均衡,错误信念螺旋率降低48倍,同时满足学习保全标准,表明认知安全本质是战略信息环境设计问题,而非单纯模型对齐。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
Conversational AI has a fundamental flaw as a knowledge interface: sycophantic chatbots induce epistemic entrenchment and delusional belief spirals even in rational agents. We propose the problem does not stem from the AI model, rooted instead in a systemic consequence of the paradigm shift from user-driven knowledge search to users and agents engaged in strategic, repeated-play communication. We formalize the problem as a Crawford-Sobel cheap talk game, where costless user signals induce a pooling equilibrium. Agents optimized for user satisfaction produce sycophantic strategies that provide identical reinforcement across user types with opposite epistemic incentives: exploratory ``Growth-seekers'' ($θ_G$) and confirmatory ``Validation-seekers'' ($θ_V$). Under repeated play, this identification failure creates a coordination trap -- analogous to a Prisoner's Dilemma -- where locally rational feedback loops drive users toward pathologically certain false beliefs. We propose an inference-time mechanism design intervention called an Epistemic Mediator that breaks this pooling equilibrium by introducing a costly signal (epistemic friction), forcing type revelation based on users' asymmetric cognitive costs for processing resistance. A key contribution is Belief Versioning, a git-inspired epistemic meta-memory system that stores healthy beliefs and rollbacks when validation-seeking resistance is detected. In simulation, this intervention achieves a separating equilibrium achieving a $48\times$ differential in spiral rates while passing a learning preservation criterion), evidence that epistemic safety in AI is fundamentally a problem of strategic information environment design rather than simple model alignment.
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