# Virtual Agent Economies

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.10147 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.10147/

## Key facts

- Cited by 21 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 98 of its 271 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 12 Sep 2025.

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 98)

- [Judging LLM-as-a-Judge with MT-Bench and Chatbot Arena](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.05685/) (2023)
- [A Survey on Hallucination in Large Language Models: Principles, Taxonomy, Challenges, and Open Questions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.05232/) (2023)
- [The Rise and Potential of Large Language Model Based Agents: A Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.07864/) (2023)
- [A Survey on LLM-as-a-Judge](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.15594/) (2024)
- [Towards Understanding Sycophancy in Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.13548/) (2023)
- [Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning: A Selective Overview of Theories and Algorithms](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1911.10635/) (2019)
- [LLM+P: Empowering Large Language Models with Optimal Planning Proficiency](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.11477/) (2023)
- [Artificial Intelligence, Values and Alignment](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2001.09768/) (2020)
- [Scalable agent alignment via reward modeling: a research direction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1811.07871/) (2018)
- [Understanding the planning of LLM agents: A survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.02716/) (2024)
- [A Survey on Large Language Model (LLM) Security and Privacy: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.02003/) (2023)
- [On the Utility of Learning about Humans for Human-AI Coordination](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1910.05789/) (2019)
- [The Effects of Reward Misspecification: Mapping and Mitigating Misaligned Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2201.03544/) (2022)
- [Measurement and Fairness](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1912.05511/) (2019)
- [Small Language Models are the Future of Agentic AI](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.02153/) (2025)
- [Human-level performance in first-person multiplayer games with population-based deep reinforcement learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1807.01281/) (2018)
- [AI Alignment: A Comprehensive Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.19852/) (2023)
- [The Alignment Problem from a Deep Learning Perspective](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2209.00626/) (2022)
- [Sustainable AI: Environmental Implications, Challenges and Opportunities](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2111.00364/) (2021)
- [Scaling Large Language Model-based Multi-Agent Collaboration](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.07155/) (2024)
- [PromptRobust: Towards Evaluating the Robustness of Large Language Models on Adversarial Prompts](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.04528/) (2023)
- [Survey of Vulnerabilities in Large Language Models Revealed by Adversarial Attacks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.10844/) (2023)
- [Power Hungry Processing: Watts Driving the Cost of AI Deployment?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.16863/) (2023)
- [Open-Ended Learning Leads to Generally Capable Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2107.12808/) (2021)
- [Large Language Model-Based Agents for Software Engineering: A Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.02977/) (2024)
- [Rewards-in-Context: Multi-objective Alignment of Foundation Models with Dynamic Preference Adjustment](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.10207/) (2024)
- [Multi-Agent Risks from Advanced AI](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.14143/) (2025)
- [Collaborating with Humans without Human Data](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2110.08176/) (2021)
- [ELEPHANT: Measuring and understanding social sycophancy in LLMs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.13995/) (2025)
- [Cooperate or Collapse: Emergence of Sustainable Cooperation in a Society of LLM Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.16698/) (2024)

## Built on by (most cited first, 21 of 21)

- [Institutional AI: Governing LLM Collusion in Multi-Agent Cournot Markets via Public Governance Graphs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.11369/) (2026)
- [A Pragmatic View of AI Personhood](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.26396/) (2025)
- [Distributional AGI Safety](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.16856/) (2025)
- [Echoing: Identity Failures when LLM Agents Talk to Each Other](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.09710/) (2025)
- [Social physics in the age of artificial intelligence](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.16900/) (2026)
- [A Case Study on Emergent Cheating and Whistleblowing in Autonomous Research Swarms](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.04170/) (2026)
- [From AGI to ASI](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.12683/) (2026)
- [Agentic Inequality](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.16853/) (2025)
- [Scaling Small Agents Through Strategy Auctions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.02751/) (2026)
- [Discovering Differences in Strategic Behavior Between Humans and LLMs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.10324/) (2026)
- [Architecting Trust in Artificial Epistemic Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.02960/) (2026)
- [AgentCity: Constitutional Governance for Autonomous Agent Economies via Separation of Power](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.07007/) (2026)
- [Choose Your Agent: Tradeoffs in Adopting AI Advisors, Coaches, and Delegates in Multi-Party Negotiation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.12089/) (2026)
- [Modeling AI-Driven Production and Competitiveness A Multi-Agent Economic Simulation of China and the United States](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.11085/) (2025)
- [When AI Agents Compete for Jobs: Strategic Capabilities and Economic Dynamics of AI Labour Markets](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.04988/) (2025)
- [Governance by Design: A Parsonian Institutional Architecture for Internet-Wide Agent Societies](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.11337/) (2026)
- [Foundation Protocol: A Coordination Layer for Agentic Society](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.23218/) (2026)
- [SODE: Analyzing Social Dynamics in LLM Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.23949/) (2026)
- [The evolution of sex for artificial intelligence: a population-genetic framework for multigenerational model populations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.18560/) (2026)
- [SoK: Decentralized Agent Economic Infrastructure](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2610.01756/) (2026)
- [The Wealth of Agents: Scaling Agentic AI Across Developers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2610.20518/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

The rapid adoption of autonomous AI agents is giving rise to a new economic layer where agents transact and coordinate at scales and speeds beyond direct human oversight. We propose the "sandbox economy" as a framework for analyzing this emergent system, characterizing it along two key dimensions: its origins (emergent vs. intentional) and its degree of separateness from the established human economy (permeable vs. impermeable). Our current trajectory points toward a spontaneous emergence of a vast and highly permeable AI agent economy, presenting us with opportunities for an unprecedented degree of coordination as well as significant challenges, including systemic economic risk and exacerbated inequality. Here we discuss a number of possible design choices that may lead to safely steerable AI agent markets. In particular, we consider auction mechanisms for fair resource allocation and preference resolution, the design of AI "mission economies" to coordinate around achieving collective goals, and socio-technical infrastructure needed to ensure trust, safety, and accountability. By doing this, we argue for the proactive design of steerable agent markets to ensure the coming technological shift aligns with humanity's long-term collective flourishing.