mlsanityData to 14 Oct 2026

Embedded Safety-Aligned Intelligence via Differentiable Internal Alignment Embeddings

arXiv 2512.18309 ↗First posted 20 Dec 2025cs.LG cs.AIcited by 0

Not on the map. Why?

Abstract (arXiv)

We introduce Embedded Safety-Aligned Intelligence (ESAI), a theoretical framework for multi-agent reinforcement learning that embeds alignment constraints directly into agents internal representations using differentiable internal alignment embeddings. Unlike external reward shaping or post-hoc safety constraints, internal alignment embeddings are learned latent variables that predict externalized harm through counterfactual reasoning and modulate policy updates toward harm reduction through attention and graph-based propagation. The ESAI framework integrates four mechanisms: differentiable counterfactual alignment penalties computed from soft reference distributions, alignment-weighted perceptual attention, Hebbian associative memory supporting temporal credit assignment, and similarity-weighted graph diffusion with bias mitigation controls. We analyze stability conditions for bounded internal embeddings under Lipschitz continuity and spectral constraints, discuss computational complexity, and examine theoretical properties including contraction behavior and fairness-performance tradeoffs. This work positions ESAI as a conceptual contribution to differentiable alignment mechanisms in multi-agent systems. We identify open theoretical questions regarding convergence guarantees, embedding dimensionality, and extension to high-dimensional environments. Empirical evaluation is left to future work.

Key facts. No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026). Builds on 16 of its 20 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 20 Dec 2025.

Builds on

16 of 20 references.

References · 16

  1. 2017Deep reinforcement learning from human preferencescited by 3,912
  2. 2017Constrained Policy Optimizationcited by 983
  3. 2017Counterfactual Multi-Agent Policy Gradientscited by 751
  4. 2014Neural Turing Machinescited by 644
  5. 2017Safe Reinforcement Learning via Shieldingcited by 449
  6. 2016Cooperative Inverse Reinforcement Learningcited by 300
  7. 2020QPLEX: Duplex Dueling Multi-Agent Q-Learningcited by 270
  8. 2018Actor-Attention-Critic for Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learningcited by 261
  9. 2021A Practical Guide to Multi-Objective Reinforcement Learning and Planningcited by 256
  10. 2018Graph Convolutional Reinforcement Learningcited by 152
  11. 2018Differentiable plasticity: training plastic neural networks with backpropagationcited by 84
  12. 2019Multi-Agent Game Abstraction via Graph Attention Neural Networkcited by 82
4 more
  1. 2023NA2Q: Neural Attention Additive Model for Interpretable Multi-Agent Q-Learningcited by 14
  2. 2019A Structured Prediction Approach for Generalization in Cooperative Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learningcited by 10
  3. 2023Kindness in Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learningcited by 1
  4. 2025Teaching RL Agents to Act Better: VLM as Action Advisor for Online Reinforcement Learningcited by 1

Built on by

Not cited yet.

Similar, not cited

Close in wording, no citation either way

  1. 2026Contrastive Reasoning Alignment: Reinforcement Learning from Hidden Representations
  2. 2025AlphaAlign: Incentivizing Safety Alignment with Extremely Simplified Reinforcement Learning
  3. 2026Reinforcement Learning Towards Broadly and Persistently Beneficial Models
  4. 2025Agent Safety Alignment via Reinforcement Learning
  5. 2025Safe But Not Sorry: Reducing Over-Conservatism in Safety Critics via Uncertainty-Aware Modulation
  6. 2026Safety of Latent Communication in Multi-Agent Systems
  7. 2026BSO: Safety Alignment Is Density Ratio Matching
  8. 2026Interactionless Inverse Reinforcement Learning: A Data-Centric Framework for Durable Alignment