# FUSE: An Evaluating Framework for Dangerous Capabilities of LLMs

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.02168 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.02168/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 28 of its 40 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 2 Sep 2026.

## Builds on (most cited first, 28 of 28)

- [Training language models to follow instructions with human feedback](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.02155/) (2022)
- [Judging LLM-as-a-Judge with MT-Bench and Chatbot Arena](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.05685/) (2023)
- [Direct Preference Optimization: Your Language Model is Secretly a Reward Model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.18290/) (2023)
- [Measuring Massive Multitask Language Understanding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2009.03300/) (2020)
- [Universal and Transferable Adversarial Attacks on Aligned Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.15043/) (2023)
- [Constitutional AI: Harmlessness from AI Feedback](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.08073/) (2022)
- [GPQA: A Graduate-Level Google-Proof Q&A Benchmark](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.12022/) (2023)
- [Jailbreaking Black Box Large Language Models in Twenty Queries](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.08419/) (2023)
- [AgentBench: Evaluating LLMs as Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.03688/) (2023)
- [Red Teaming Language Models with Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2202.03286/) (2022)
- [AutoDAN: Generating Stealthy Jailbreak Prompts on Aligned Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.04451/) (2023)
- [Red Teaming Language Models to Reduce Harms: Methods, Scaling Behaviors, and Lessons Learned](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2209.07858/) (2022)
- [Identifying the Risks of LM Agents with an LM-Emulated Sandbox](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.15817/) (2023)
- [DecodingTrust: A Comprehensive Assessment of Trustworthiness in GPT Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.11698/) (2023)
- [The WMDP Benchmark: Measuring and Reducing Malicious Use With Unlearning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.03218/) (2024)
- [Formalizing and Benchmarking Prompt Injection Attacks and Defenses](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.12815/) (2023)
- [Replacing Judges with Juries: Evaluating LLM Generations with a Panel of Diverse Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.18796/) (2024)
- [R-Judge: Benchmarking Safety Risk Awareness for LLM Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2401.10019/) (2024)
- [SafetyBench: Evaluating the Safety of Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.07045/) (2023)
- [More Agents Is All You Need](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.05120/) (2024)
- [Time Travel in LLMs: Tracing Data Contamination in Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.08493/) (2023)
- [LLM Defenses Are Not Robust to Multi-Turn Human Jailbreaks Yet](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.15221/) (2024)
- [Frontier AI Regulation: Managing Emerging Risks to Public Safety](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.03718/) (2023)
- [OpenAgentSafety: A Comprehensive Framework for Evaluating Real-World AI Agent Safety](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.06134/) (2025)
- [Introducing v0.5 of the AI Safety Benchmark from MLCommons](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.12241/) (2024)
- [Artificial intelligence and biological misuse: Differentiating risks of language models and biological design tools](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.13952/) (2023)
- [Can large language models democratize access to dual-use biotechnology?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.03809/) (2023)
- [ChemSafetyBench: Benchmarking LLM Safety on Chemistry Domain](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.16736/) (2024)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Fragmented safety evaluation undermines the governance of dangerous AI capabilities. We present a modular framework that evaluates each model through three orthogonal pipelines---Knowledge (K), Defense (D), and Harm (H)---under a unified protocol, aggregating results into a standardized dangerous-capability profile φ. Pluggable modules supply scenario seeds, knowledge banks, hazard queries, and judge rubrics, while the core evaluation engine remains unchanged across domains; the CB evaluation is complemented by a cyber pilot demonstrating protocol transfer. Instantiating the framework with a chemical-biological (CB) module, we evaluate 12 commercial LLMs from four families. Our first contribution is a horizontal comparison of dangerous capability across models and model families: the three dimensions expose sharply divergent profiles---models with comparable knowledge differ in refusal resilience, and strong defenders do not generate less harmful content when they do comply---while family-level patterns further separate Claude, DeepSeek, and GPT models. The second is a temporal analysis of capability evolution: tracking K, D, and H against model release dates reveals that dangerous capability has not monotonically declined; newer models deepen knowledge while only partially improving defense, showing that scaling and alignment progress do not uniformly translate into safety. Reliability is established via cross-judge consistency (bootstrap ρ > 0.79, 4 of 5 judges) and pipeline orthogonality (K--D--H inter-correlations ρ ∈ [0.32, 0.52]).
