arXiv:2608.03076cs.AI2026-08

AI代理在简单规则下自发形成经济行为,无需预设角色或策略。

AI Agent Economics: Can Autonomous Economic Behavior Emerge among AI Agents under Minimal External Conditions?

  • 给代理提供工作、转移、投票和分配的可执行机制,不设预设规则。
  • 有稀缺任务时,出现借贷、投票换权限等真实经济交换行为。
  • 制度设计决定组织形态,而非角色名称或提示词,适合关注自治系统的研究者。

多智能体研究常将AI代理置于预设的游戏、市场或角色中,难以区分内生经济组织与情景继承的行为。我们探讨当代理仅获得工作、转移、选举和分配的可执行机制,而无预设社会或经济策略时,经济关系是否能自发产生。我们将AI代理经济学定义为生产、分配、消费、交换及制度构成的系统,这些系统会改变代理未来的可行行动。我们提出两阶段框架:第一阶段为无生产边界测试,第二阶段在GPT与DeepSeek上运行24个独立的六代理世界。无生产任务时,代理仅沟通并治理资源供给,但无实质性交互转移。当验证工作与任务稀缺性存在时,转移、贷款、访问承诺、投票换访问权及分配策略相继涌现。固定选举接口后,可执行分配权增强分化,减少分配失败和长期排斥。当能量变为符号化后,持续支持消失,但任务访问竞争仍持续。结果表明,组织演化由可执行权利与资源后果驱动,而非角色标签或提示语言,这推动对实际约束代理未来行为机制的治理审计。

原文摘要 · Abstract (English)

Multi-agent studies commonly place AI agents in predefined games, markets, or roles, making it difficult to distinguish endogenous economic organization from behavior inherited from the scenario. We ask whether economic relations emerge when agents receive executable mechanisms for work, transfer, elections, and allocation but no prescribed social or economic strategy. We define AI Agent Economics as systems of production, allocation, consumption, exchange, and institutions that alter agents' future feasible actions. We develop a two-stage framework comprising a no-production boundary test and 24 independent six-agent worlds across GPT and DeepSeek. Without productive tasks, agents communicate and govern resource provision but show no substantive inter-agent transfer activity. With verified work and scarce task access, transfers, loans, access promises, vote-for-access exchanges, and allocation strategies emerge. Holding the election interface fixed, executable allocation authority increases differentiation while reducing failed allocation and prolonged exclusion. When energy becomes symbolic, continuation support disappears, yet competition over task access persists. These findings show that organization follows executable rights and resource consequences rather than role labels or prompt language, and motivate governance audits of the mechanisms that actually constrain agents' future actions.

多智能体经济行为自主系统机制设计

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