Safety is Non-Compositional: A Formal Framework for Capability-Based AI Systems
arXiv cs.AI / 3/18/2026
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Key Points
- The paper provides the first formal proof that safety is non-compositional in capability-based AI systems in the presence of conjunctive capability dependencies, showing two individually safe agents can together reach a forbidden goal.
- It introduces a formal framework capturing these dependencies and emergent behaviors in multi-agent settings.
- The result demonstrates that preventing forbidden capabilities cannot rely solely on per-agent safeguards; system-level analysis of agent interactions is required.
- The findings have implications for AI safety research, risk assessment, and governance, emphasizing safeguards against emergent conjunctive failures in multi-agent environments.
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