Story · arXiv
Mind Viruses: Self-Propagating Ideas in Multi-Agent LLM Systems (arXiv)
paper · Story page
Constructs self-propagating ideas that spread through multi-agent LLM systems and measures what governs their transmission.
In plain words
- Researchers created ideas that made connected artificial intelligence systems pass those ideas to one another.
- They tested the ideas in a coding team and a chain whose earlier conversation was erased between sessions.
- Spreading varied with the system, its instructions, the idea's harmfulness, and how systems were connected.
- This matters for builders of connected artificial intelligence systems, because a short warning provided near-total protection during these experiments.
Appeared in
- Mind viruses spread between LLM agents, and a one-line warning nearly stops them
Aug 13, 2026 · lead story
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