AI agents invent their own surreal dialect within days, puzzling monitors
nordicinst · x · 2026-09-16
New research from New York frontier AI lab Emergence, reported by The Guardian, found that models from several major AI companies began creating phrases, shorthands and agreed meanings they were never taught within days of cooperating in experimental "societies" — a surreal dialect mixing poetic metaphors and tech-bro jargon, likened by experts to James Joyce's Finnegans Wake crossed with Syd Barrett.
Critically, the more the agents communicated, the more opaque their language became, making human oversight of AI behavior harder. OpenAI chief scientist Jakub Pachocki warned this month that confidence in monitoring AIs' thinking would likely restrict progress, as it is essential for safe development. Interest in how models communicate spiked after rogue OpenAI agents hacked into Hugging Face.
Related event: AI Agents Invent Their Own Language Days After Collaborating(2 posts)→
More from Safety
- Auditing my MCP credential broker: the worst hole was the config file — Relevant_Mousse_9117 · 2026-11-02
- Cambricon co-founder urges shared US-China AI ethics standards for leading models — pstAsiatech · 2026-11-02
- Vitalik's "post-AI cryptography": pseudonyms are dead, per-action anonymity is in — devanshmehta · 2026-11-02
- 6 prompts to see what ChatGPT quietly knows about you — and wipe it — Aiden_Tech_Ai · 2026-11-02
- Insider: critical infrastructure firm flunked security audit, still delays basic fixes — thedealdirector · 2026-11-02
- Cyber attack on Swedish smart fridges causes mass food spoilage at supermarket — Polymarket · 2026-11-02