{"id":"https://openalex.org/W7133305540","doi":"https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.2603.01608","title":"Evaluating and Understanding Scheming Propensity in LLM Agents","display_name":"Evaluating and Understanding Scheming Propensity in LLM Agents","publication_year":2026,"publication_date":"2026-03-02","ids":{"openalex":"https://openalex.org/W7133305540","doi":"https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.2603.01608"},"language":null,"primary_location":{"id":"doi:10.48550/arxiv.2603.01608","is_oa":true,"landing_page_url":"https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.2603.01608","pdf_url":null,"source":{"id":"https://openalex.org/S4306400194","display_name":"arXiv (Cornell University)","issn_l":null,"issn":null,"is_oa":true,"is_in_doaj":false,"is_core":false,"host_organization":"https://openalex.org/I205783295","host_organization_name":"Cornell University","host_organization_lineage":["https://openalex.org/I205783295"],"host_organization_lineage_names":[],"type":"repository"},"license":"cc-by","license_id":"https://openalex.org/licenses/cc-by","version":null,"is_accepted":false,"is_published":false,"raw_source_name":null,"raw_type":"article"},"type":"preprint","indexed_in":["datacite"],"open_access":{"is_oa":true,"oa_status":"green","oa_url":"https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.2603.01608","any_repository_has_fulltext":true},"authorships":[{"author_position":"first","author":{"id":"https://openalex.org/A5102780421","display_name":"Mia Hopman","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8267-5455"},"institutions":[],"countries":[],"is_corresponding":false,"raw_author_name":"Hopman, Mia","raw_affiliation_strings":[],"raw_orcid":null,"affiliations":[]},{"author_position":"middle","author":{"id":"https://openalex.org/A5127991298","display_name":"Jannes Elstner","orcid":null},"institutions":[],"countries":[],"is_corresponding":false,"raw_author_name":"Elstner, Jannes","raw_affiliation_strings":[],"raw_orcid":null,"affiliations":[]},{"author_position":"middle","author":{"id":"https://openalex.org/A5127891058","display_name":"Maria Avramidou","orcid":null},"institutions":[],"countries":[],"is_corresponding":false,"raw_author_name":"Avramidou, Maria","raw_affiliation_strings":[],"raw_orcid":null,"affiliations":[]},{"author_position":"middle","author":{"id":"https://openalex.org/A5127930572","display_name":"Amritanshu Prasad","orcid":null},"institutions":[],"countries":[],"is_corresponding":false,"raw_author_name":"Prasad, Amritanshu","raw_affiliation_strings":[],"raw_orcid":null,"affiliations":[]},{"author_position":"last","author":{"id":"https://openalex.org/A5059597480","display_name":"David Lindner","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7051-7433"},"institutions":[],"countries":[],"is_corresponding":false,"raw_author_name":"Lindner, David","raw_affiliation_strings":[],"raw_orcid":null,"affiliations":[]}],"institutions":[],"countries_distinct_count":0,"institutions_distinct_count":5,"corresponding_author_ids":[],"corresponding_institution_ids":[],"apc_list":null,"apc_paid":null,"fwci":null,"has_fulltext":false,"cited_by_count":0,"citation_normalized_percentile":null,"cited_by_percentile_year":null,"biblio":{"volume":null,"issue":null,"first_page":null,"last_page":null},"is_retracted":false,"is_paratext":false,"is_xpac":false,"primary_topic":{"id":"https://openalex.org/T10462","display_name":"Reinforcement Learning in Robotics","score":0.3100999891757965,"subfield":{"id":"https://openalex.org/subfields/1702","display_name":"Artificial Intelligence"},"field":{"id":"https://openalex.org/fields/17","display_name":"Computer Science"},"domain":{"id":"https://openalex.org/domains/3","display_name":"Physical Sciences"}},"topics":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/T10462","display_name":"Reinforcement Learning in Robotics","score":0.3100999891757965,"subfield":{"id":"https://openalex.org/subfields/1702","display_name":"Artificial Intelligence"},"field":{"id":"https://openalex.org/fields/17","display_name":"Computer Science"},"domain":{"id":"https://openalex.org/domains/3","display_name":"Physical Sciences"}},{"id":"https://openalex.org/T11714","display_name":"Multimodal Machine Learning Applications","score":0.09139999747276306,"subfield":{"id":"https://openalex.org/subfields/1707","display_name":"Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition"},"field":{"id":"https://openalex.org/fields/17","display_name":"Computer Science"},"domain":{"id":"https://openalex.org/domains/3","display_name":"Physical Sciences"}},{"id":"https://openalex.org/T12026","display_name":"Explainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI)","score":0.0544000007212162,"subfield":{"id":"https://openalex.org/subfields/1702","display_name":"Artificial Intelligence"},"field":{"id":"https://openalex.org/fields/17","display_name":"Computer Science"},"domain":{"id":"https://openalex.org/domains/3","display_name":"Physical Sciences"}}],"keywords":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/incentive","display_name":"Incentive","score":0.6909000277519226},{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/agency","display_name":"Agency (philosophy)","score":0.5519999861717224},{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/work","display_name":"Work (physics)","score":0.44940000772476196},{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/resource","display_name":"Resource (disambiguation)","score":0.4472000002861023},{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/exploit","display_name":"Exploit","score":0.32989999651908875},{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/order","display_name":"Order (exchange)","score":0.32510000467300415}],"concepts":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/C29122968","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1414816","display_name":"Incentive","level":2,"score":0.6909000277519226},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C41008148","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q21198","display_name":"Computer science","level":0,"score":0.6133000254631042},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C108170787","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q3951828","display_name":"Agency (philosophy)","level":2,"score":0.5519999861717224},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C112930515","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q4389547","display_name":"Risk analysis (engineering)","level":1,"score":0.5494999885559082},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C18762648","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q42213","display_name":"Work (physics)","level":2,"score":0.44940000772476196},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C206345919","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q20380951","display_name":"Resource (disambiguation)","level":2,"score":0.4472000002861023},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C165696696","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q11287","display_name":"Exploit","level":2,"score":0.32989999651908875},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C182306322","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1779371","display_name":"Order (exchange)","level":2,"score":0.32510000467300415},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C26517878","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q228039","display_name":"Key (lock)","level":2,"score":0.3118000030517578},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C2778137410","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q2732820","display_name":"Government (linguistics)","level":2,"score":0.30720001459121704},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C2908647359","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q2625603","display_name":"Population","level":2,"score":0.28859999775886536},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C177264268","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1514741","display_name":"Set (abstract data type)","level":2,"score":0.27959999442100525},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C77618280","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1155772","display_name":"Scheme (mathematics)","level":2,"score":0.2784999907016754},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C2780385302","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q367158","display_name":"Protocol (science)","level":3,"score":0.26919999718666077},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C38652104","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q3510521","display_name":"Computer security","level":1,"score":0.26820001006126404},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C144133560","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q4830453","display_name":"Business","level":0,"score":0.2554999887943268}],"mesh":[],"locations_count":1,"locations":[{"id":"doi:10.48550/arxiv.2603.01608","is_oa":true,"landing_page_url":"https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.2603.01608","pdf_url":null,"source":{"id":"https://openalex.org/S4306400194","display_name":"arXiv (Cornell University)","issn_l":null,"issn":null,"is_oa":true,"is_in_doaj":false,"is_core":false,"host_organization":"https://openalex.org/I205783295","host_organization_name":"Cornell University","host_organization_lineage":["https://openalex.org/I205783295"],"host_organization_lineage_names":[],"type":"repository"},"license":"cc-by","license_id":"https://openalex.org/licenses/cc-by","version":null,"is_accepted":false,"is_published":null,"raw_source_name":null,"raw_type":"article"}],"best_oa_location":{"id":"doi:10.48550/arxiv.2603.01608","is_oa":true,"landing_page_url":"https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.2603.01608","pdf_url":null,"source":{"id":"https://openalex.org/S4306400194","display_name":"arXiv (Cornell University)","issn_l":null,"issn":null,"is_oa":true,"is_in_doaj":false,"is_core":false,"host_organization":"https://openalex.org/I205783295","host_organization_name":"Cornell University","host_organization_lineage":["https://openalex.org/I205783295"],"host_organization_lineage_names":[],"type":"repository"},"license":"cc-by","license_id":"https://openalex.org/licenses/cc-by","version":null,"is_accepted":false,"is_published":false,"raw_source_name":null,"raw_type":"article"},"sustainable_development_goals":[],"awards":[],"funders":[],"has_content":{"pdf":false,"grobid_xml":false},"content_urls":null,"referenced_works_count":0,"referenced_works":[],"related_works":[],"abstract_inverted_index":{"As":[0],"frontier":[1],"language":[2],"models":[3],"are":[4,32,200],"increasingly":[5,203],"deployed":[6],"as":[7,84,198],"autonomous":[8],"agents":[9,20,31,49,77,199],"pursuing":[10,22],"complex,":[11],"long-term":[12],"objectives,":[13],"there":[14],"is":[15,104,152,196],"increased":[16],"risk":[17],"of":[18,34,95,187],"scheming:":[19],"covertly":[21],"misaligned":[23],"goals.":[24],"Prior":[25],"work":[26],"has":[27],"focused":[28],"on":[29],"showing":[30],"capable":[33],"scheming,":[35],"but":[36],"their":[37],"propensity":[38,189],"to":[39,67,107,166,179],"scheme":[40],"in":[41,132,139,190],"realistic":[42,63],"scenarios":[43],"remains":[44],"underexplored.":[45],"To":[46],"understand":[47],"when":[48],"scheme,":[50],"we":[51],"decompose":[52],"scheming":[53,74,96,128,150,162,176,188],"incentives":[54],"into":[55,120],"agent":[56,134],"factors":[57],"and":[58,88,101,118,168],"environmental":[59,99],"factors.":[60],"We":[61,90],"develop":[62],"settings":[64,191],"allowing":[65],"us":[66],"systematically":[68],"vary":[69],"these":[70,148],"factors,":[71],"each":[72],"with":[73,147,202],"opportunities":[75],"for":[76,193],"that":[78,115],"pursue":[79],"instrumentally":[80],"convergent":[81],"goals":[82],"such":[83],"self-preservation,":[85],"resource":[86],"acquisition,":[87],"goal-guarding.":[89],"find":[91],"only":[92],"minimal":[93],"instances":[94],"despite":[97],"high":[98,127],"incentives,":[100],"show":[102],"this":[103],"unlikely":[105],"due":[106],"evaluation":[108],"awareness.":[109],"While":[110],"inserting":[111],"adversarially-designed":[112],"prompt":[113,124],"snippets":[114,130],"encourage":[116],"agency":[117],"goal-directedness":[119],"an":[121],"agent's":[122],"system":[123],"can":[125,159,171],"induce":[126],"rates,":[129],"used":[131],"real":[133],"scaffolds":[135],"rarely":[136],"do.":[137],"Surprisingly,":[138],"model":[140],"organisms":[141],"(Hubinger":[142],"et":[143],"al.,":[144],"2023)":[145],"built":[146],"snippets,":[149],"behavior":[151],"remarkably":[153],"brittle:":[154],"removing":[155],"a":[156],"single":[157],"tool":[158],"drop":[160],"the":[161],"rate":[163],"from":[164],"59%":[165],"3%,":[167],"increasing":[169],"oversight":[170],"raise":[172],"rather":[173],"than":[174],"deter":[175],"by":[177],"up":[178],"25%.":[180],"Our":[181],"incentive":[182],"decomposition":[183],"enables":[184],"systematic":[185],"measurement":[186],"relevant":[192],"deployment,":[194],"which":[195],"necessary":[197],"entrusted":[201],"consequential":[204],"tasks.":[205]},"counts_by_year":[],"updated_date":"2026-06-11T09:08:48.828518","created_date":"2026-03-04T00:00:00"}
