Story · arXiv (via papers.cool)
Self-Healing Harness for Runtime Oversight of Agent Self-Modification (arXiv (via papers.cool))
paper · Story page
An external gate evaluates every rule an agent writes for itself, and keeps it only when it improves the triggering failure without regressing protected cases beyond a fixed margin. Across 16 matched runs on three benchmarks it rejected 383 proposals, 211 of which fixed the failure that prompted them while degrading a case that already worked.
In plain words
- Researchers built a system that checks proposed changes to an artificial intelligence assistant's instructions before keeping them.
- It tests each proposed change on the failed task and on tasks the assistant previously handled correctly.
- A change stays only if it improves the failed task without making earlier successes worse beyond an allowed limit.
- Of 383 rejected changes, 211 improved the failed task while worsening a task the assistant previously handled correctly.
- People building these assistants get a way to check whether fixing one mistake creates another.
Appeared in
- Dormant prompt injections land on nine production agents where direct orders fail
Sep 23, 2026 · in the sections
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