A Game-Theoretic Analysis of the Off-Switch Game
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Abstract (arXiv)
The off-switch game is a game theoretic model of a highly intelligent robot interacting with a human. In the original paper by Hadfield-Menell et al. (2016), the analysis is not fully game-theoretic as the human is modelled as an irrational player, and the robot's best action is only calculated under unrealistic normality and soft-max assumptions. In this paper, we make the analysis fully game theoretic, by modelling the human as a rational player with a random utility function. As a consequence, we are able to easily calculate the robot's best action for arbitrary belief and irrationality assumptions.
Key facts. Cited by 8 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026). First posted on arXiv 13 Aug 2017.
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Citing papers per year: 2021: 1; 2022: 0; 2023: 0; 2024: 3; 2025: 3; 2026: 1.
8 papers.
- 2024The Shutdown Problem: An AI Engineering Puzzle for Decision Theoristscited by 22
- 2021Impossibility Results in AI: A Surveycited by 13
- 2024The Partially Observable Off-Switch Gamecited by 5
- 2025Core Safety Values for Provably Corrigible Agentscited by 5
- 2024Towards Shutdownable Agents via Stochastic Choicecited by 2
- 2025Misalignment from Treating Means as Endscited by 2
- 2026Towards Shutdownable Agents: Generalizing Stochastic Choice in RL Agents and LLMscited by 1
- 2025The AI off-switch problem as a signalling game: bounded rationality and incomparabilitycited by 0
- 2026Towards Shutdownable Agents: Generalizing Stochastic Choice in RL Agents and LLMs19 Apr 2026
- 2025Core Safety Values for Provably Corrigible Agents28 Jul 2025
- 2025Misalignment from Treating Means as Ends15 Jul 2025
- 2025The AI off-switch problem as a signalling game: bounded rationality and incomparability10 Feb 2025
- 2024The Partially Observable Off-Switch Game25 Nov 2024
- 2024Towards Shutdownable Agents via Stochastic Choice30 Jun 2024
- 2024The Shutdown Problem: An AI Engineering Puzzle for Decision Theorists7 Mar 2024
- 2021Impossibility Results in AI: A Survey1 Sep 2021