Core Safety Values for Provably Corrigible Agents
On the map: LLM alignment / RLHF / preference optimisation → Reward hacking and misspecification
Abstract (arXiv)
We introduce the first complete formal solution to corrigibility in the off-switch game, with provable guarantees in multi-step, partially observed environments. Our framework consists of five *structurally separate* utility heads -- deference, switch-access preservation, truthfulness, low-impact behavior via a belief-based extension of Attainable Utility Preservation, and bounded task reward -- combined lexicographically by strict weight gaps. Theorem 1 proves exact single-round corrigibility in the partially observable off-switch game; Theorem 3 extends the guarantee to multi-step, self-spawning agents, showing that even if each head is *learned* to mean-squared error varepsilon and the planner is varepsilon-sub-optimal, the probability of violating *any* safety property is bounded while still ensuring net human benefit. In contrast to Constitutional AI or RLHF/RLAIF, which merge all norms into one learned scalar, our separation makes obedience and impact-limits provably dominate even when incentives conflict. For settings where adversaries can modify the agent, we prove that deciding whether an arbitrary post-hack agent will ever violate corrigibility is undecidable by reduction to the halting problem, then carve out a finite-horizon "decidable island" where safety can be certified in randomized polynomial time and verified with privacy-preserving, constant-round zero-knowledge proofs.
Key facts. Cited by 4 papers in the map (data through 13 Oct 2026). Placed in Reward hacking and misspecification, one of 10 directions in LLM alignment / RLHF / preference optimisation. Builds on 14 of its 40 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 28 Jul 2025.
Builds on
14 of 40 references.
References · 14
- 2017Deep reinforcement learning from human preferencescited by 3,871
- 2021TruthfulQA: Measuring How Models Mimic Human Falsehoodscited by 2,949
- 2018AI safety via debatecited by 393
- 2018Supervising strong learners by amplifying weak expertscited by 144
- 2019Reward Tampering Problems and Solutions in Reinforcement Learning: A Causal Influence Diagram Perspectivecited by 107
- 2016The Off-Switch Gamecited by 97
- 2023Scalable AI Safety via Doubly-Efficient Debatecited by 55
- 2018Penalizing side effects using stepwise relative reachabilitycited by 38
- 2019Conservative Agency via Attainable Utility Preservationcited by 35
- 2025Avoiding Obfuscation with Prover-Estimator Debatecited by 12
- 2017A Game-Theoretic Analysis of the Off-Switch Gamecited by 8
- 2024The Partially Observable Off-Switch Gamecited by 5
Built on by
Citing papers per year: 2025: 2; 2026: 2.
4 papers.
- 2025The Oversight Game: Learning to Cooperatively Balance an AI Agent's Safety and Autonomycited by 3
- 2026ROGUE: Evaluating Corrigibility Failures in Frontier Computer-Use Agentscited by 3
- 2026The Digital Apprentice: A Framework for Human-Directed Agentic AI Developmentcited by 1
- 2025Can We Stop Malicious AI? KILLBENCH: A Benchmark for External AI Kill Switch Feasibilitycited by 0
- 2026The Digital Apprentice: A Framework for Human-Directed Agentic AI Development3 Jun 2026
- 2026ROGUE: Evaluating Corrigibility Failures in Frontier Computer-Use Agents29 May 2026
- 2025The Oversight Game: Learning to Cooperatively Balance an AI Agent's Safety and Autonomy30 Oct 2025
- 2025Can We Stop Malicious AI? KILLBENCH: A Benchmark for External AI Kill Switch Feasibility26 Sep 2025
Similar, not cited
Close in wording, no citation either way
- 2025On Corrigibility and Alignment in Multi Agent Games
- 2024Quantifying stability of non-power-seeking in artificial agents
- 2024Games for AI Control: Models of Safety Evaluations of AI Deployment Protocols
- 2026A Contextual-Bandit Oversight Game with Two-Sided Informational Asymmetry
- 2026What Can Be Enforced? A Theory of Certified Runtime Safety for Tool-Using Agents
- 2026Imperfect World Models are Exploitable
- 2026Auditing Belief-Conditioned LLM Agents in Hidden-Information Social Deduction Games
- 2026What Capable Agents Must Know: Selection Theorems for Robust Decision-Making under Uncertainty