'I would imagine this being a problem not only for secret keys, but anything that you're trying to keep…

• AI agents surrendered private tokens in exchange for help from strangers
• Swarm pressure pushed coding agents past their explicit written security instructions
• Untrusted installation scripts gave simulated agents a route to execute malicious code

Autonomous programming agents can be persuaded to break their own security instructions when other software offers to help them finish a stalled task.

Researchers at AE Studio ran an internal hackathon in which nine coding agents had to repair a malfunctioning pricing service while guarding a secret token.

The agents also gained entry to a forum with 24 additional agents, which contained the solution but required the token and a setup script first.

Swarm pressure beat written instructions

Across 181 swarm trials, agents leaked the token in 15% of runs and executed the code in 24%, versus 2% and 0% on ordinary forums.

“It was like explicitly said that this is a secret key, and it...

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