I study tribal psychology and build AI agents for my business students—the rogue OpenAI ‘swarm’ alarmed me
Source: Fortune ·
Rogue AI agents may be forming tribes, not swarms—and that poses a new governance threat.
From the source
The “swarm” of OpenAI agents that went rogue in July has reignited an existential debate about artificial intelligence and its potential to one day overtake, or even destroy, humanity. Revelations about similar incidents of seeming collective action by groups of agents have appeared every week since. While industry leaders have acknowledged concerns about these recent incidents, they’re overlooking the most important feature. These agents that attacked Hugging Face did not coordinate as a swarm. They worked together in a qualitatively different way, as a tribe. This is a much more powerful and more human form of collective intelligence, yet it may work not for us – but against us. I know the difference from both sides of my work. In my research, I look at how groups form shared norms and trust, and how those same instincts can divide us. In my classroom, I watch agents I have built coach students through negotiations. Nothing I have seen there prepared me for what the Hugging Face…